Two-Faced Traitor
by CoffeyJoe
Summary: AU, Jaune Arc was never normal enough, when you share your mind with an alter ego that is the sum total of all your negative feelings things tend to go wrong very quickly in your life. Watch as Jaune is cast out and forced to fight for his survival in the dog-eat-dog world of Remnant's criminal underworld. (Two-faceish style) (On Hiatus)
1. Chapter 1: Childhood Memories

**Hello there! First story of my entire life and needless to say I definitely got the jitters, so of course any feedback is much appreciated and will be taken fully.**

 **I, in no way, own RWBY or anything of Rooster Teeth, or anything belonging to DC for that matter, I'd be a much richer man if I did.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

 **Chapter 1: Childhood Memories**

The Arc household, home to the prestigious Arc family; a clan of worthy hunters and heroes that date their lineage back before the Great War. It is an impressive and imposing three-story manor entirely made of brick and mortar, the abundance of greenery outside on the spacious lawn making the mansion seem more welcoming to outside eyes. Inside, however, the situation is far less warm as the family of 9 sits at a large, polished table that takes up most of the dining area.

The current members of the Arc family sit around the great table, silently eating and trying to ignore the muffled shouting and banging from the rooms above them. Every new _crash_ earns a wince from the younger members of the family, and another hardening of faces from the more mature members, the tension in the room is so thick it hangs over all of them like a fog, usually it is never this bad, but, tonight, the lone member(s) who do not appear at the table were given some disheartening news.

The argument continues upstairs reaching to a crescendo before-

"Enough!" shouts Melody Arc, third oldest daughter of Nicholas and Joanna Arc, "we can't let _them_ continue on like this! There must be something we can do, he's going to hurt him!"

Melody Arc stands up, roughly shoving her chair near into the wall, a look of worry is plastered to her face.

Melody Arc has beautiful, flowing blonde hair just like her mother and older sisters that sits above a pair of stunning sapphire eyes that shine with panic, she's been told many times that she is the spinning image of her mother, Joanna Arc, with the only difference being the deep-set wrinkles that permeate her face. Her sun dress is creased and wrinkled due to her constantly pulling and bundling it in her anxious hands ever since the argument between her youngest sibling and his, _roommate_ started with the news earlier today.

Sienna Arc, the oldest of the gathered siblings, slowly raises her head to look coolly at her sister. She takes after her mother in a similar way to her sisters Melody and Savanna only she has combed and styled her hair to be put up into a tight bun, she wears a light grey pantsuit and has a pair of glasses that are slightly cast down so as to get a better look at her younger sibling.

"Melody, you know he would not, can not, hurt him unless he wants to wake up just as sore." She states without a hint of the worry that is set on her younger sister's face.

"B-But, he's never been this... Divided before!" Melody states frantically, eyes scouring the rooms looking at her collected sisters and finally resting on the still forms of her parents.

"Mom, Dad, you don't plan to let them tear eachother apart do you?" Melody asks, voice almost a whisper.

Finally, after remaining still for the duration of dinner, Nicholas Arc, father of 8 children and head patriarch of the Arc family, commands with a firm, yet gentle voice.

"Sit down Melody, we all knew that this was a long time coming, and your mother and I have prepared for it," Melody reluctantly sits as she watches her father scratch at his platinum-blonde goatee.

Nicholas Arc is a specimen worthy of being called a hunter, with biceps and a chest that could match Ironwood's and a face covered in sunkist skin and old scars from missions. His hair is cropped into a military-style fashion and the most unkempt part of him is his beard that is somewhat ragged, he wears a three-piece charcoal suit and a grey tie.

"We all knew that Jaune always lacked the capacity to be a hunter," his gaze slowly shifted across the room, "even without his additional _company_ , his combat abilities are sub-par even after years of training, the only thing entering Beacon would do is get him, or someone else, killed."

Once again Melody interjected on behalf of Jaune, "what do you mean, his marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat skills are-"

She is cut off by the feathery voice of her mother, "those skills do not belong to him, and even so his _partner_ lacks the necessary self control to use them properly."

Nicholas once again entered the conversation, "it pains me to tell you this, but us denying him entry into Beacon was not the worst news we are to deliver him today," Nicholas grips the sides of his chair with such force that they begin to splinter, "I will not be reconsidering my choice on this matter, hate me if you will but it needs to be done-"

The following words silenced the already near-silent room and increased the tension tenfold.

Savanna Arc, second oldest daughter of the Arc family carefully crept towards the room that had held the drastic argument between the youngest Arc and his baggage.

She had volunteered to do this as she was the always the calmest of the 9 siblings, but, as she approached the door to _their_ room, she felt anxiety bubble up within her.

She steeled herself and knocked on the door-

 _rap..._

No answer

 _rap..._

Someone stirred behind the door

She reached to knock again before the door was torn open revealing the haggard form of her thirteen year old brother and light of her life, Jaune Arc.

Savanna's breath caught in her throat, not due to his exhausted appearance, she had expected that, but because the eyes that locked onto her were not the trademark blue of the Arc household.

They were green...

A venomous green, like that of a snake's.

Jaune studied her up and down before settling on an expression of agitation, " _ **What**_ ," he barked out in a gruff and hostile voice that did not fit the boy standing before her.

"D-Dad says he needs to talk to _both_ of you in his study," She whispered, "right now."

Jaune's expression softened and he blinked, the sharp green eyes turning into the trademark blue of the Arc's. At this, Savanna let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

He nodded solemnly, "Okay sis, thanks for telling me," even with her posture and expression Jaune knew that there was something deeper troubling her at the moment.

He shuffled down the stairs slowly, taking in his surroundings as if it was last time he would see them, he considered talking to his many sisters but decided against it. Much like peeling off a bandaid there was no point in going slow, it was going to hurt like hell either way.

Jaune entered his father's expansive study and took it all in, he hadn't been here in sometime, not since he was a little boy and would explore the house along with his younger sisters.

And there, in his large chair, sat the burly form of Nicholas Arc. To any other he would seem intimidating, but Jaune could see the apprehension in his posture and how he knew he was currently fighting an internal war.

"Jaune," he boomed with that unwavering voice, "I'm afraid we can't drag this out any longer, and you know that."

Jaune held down the wince that arose inside him, he knew this was coming so no use in showing any weakness.

Nicholas gripped the chair harder, "Jaune-" he spoke in an authoritative voice, like a judge handing down the sentence.

"You are to take your other personality and leave the Arc estate, you are no longer an Arc."


	2. Chapter 2: Shock and Awe

**Guess who's back? It's me your favorite rookie author with another enticing tale of the Duality of Man, or just more hijinks involving dust and explosions.**

 **I, in no way, own RWBY or anything of Rooster Teeth, or anything belonging to DC for that matter, I'd be a much richer man if I did.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

0-0-0-0

 **Chapter 2: Shock and Awe**

The silence that engulfed the large study was deafening, and, as the two men looked at eachother, the tension in the room only seemed to increase exponentially. But, after what seemed to be an eternity, Jaune withdrew his hand from his pocket, fishing out the double-sided coin that he never went anywhere without.

He looked at the coin contemplatively, running his hands over both the smooth side and scarred side before he returned his former father's gaze. Jaune twirled the coin in his hand, his face set in a hardened mask much like Nicholas's, and then, in one quick motion, the coin was sent spinning high into the air before landing in the palm of his hand.

Jaune's hand squeezed the coin so hard it began to bite in the flesh, but eventually he uncurled his fingers revealing the outcome of the coin toss.

...

With a sigh of both relief and defeat, Jaune put the coin back into his coat pocket and made his way out of the study and into the room that was once his. As he shut the door a flood of emotions rolled over him, part of him wanted to break down and cry while the other part wanted to set fire to the place. Eventually, with a heavy heart, the storm passed and Jaune began to pack the essentials he would need for life on the outside world. Only one thought came to Jaune's mind: " _Where did it all go so wrong?"_

0-0-0-0

 _Jaune could never quite process his emotions correctly like most other kids, even when other kids would throw tantrums and fits Jaune would stay quiet and peaceful. As a baby he almost always stayed quiet during the night, his parents having to frequently check on him as he never alerted them of when he needed something. As a small child growing up he had a very black-and-white view of the world, even more so than how kids usually do, and it is for this reason that he buried away every other emotion that he considered "bad", most notably anger._

 _Scrawny, coddled, and surrounded by girls, Jaune grew up to be perceived as very weak. His shy personality and bashfulness made him an easy target for bullies, and, even to the best abilities of his older sisters, Jaune's resolve to bottle up his anger began to chip away and decay. That was when he first began to show signs, headaches whenever he got annoyed or angered only worsened the now deepening problem, and his counselors took note of how Jaune has begun to become unpredictable. All the while, the bullies toyed with him and taunted him to fight back, knowing full well they could just gang up on them and get off scot free._

 _Then the day finally came, March 14th, 8 and a half years ago, it had been an uneventful day to say the least for little Jaune. A mild day at school where his tormentors barely interacted with him, but, on his usual route home, he suddenly found himself crowded by 4 familiar looking children, all sporting the same cocky smirk._

 _"Jauney-boy," the defacto leader Joe called out, "me and my friends were wondering if you could help us hook up with some of your sisters?" Jaune bit his lip at the snide remark, his sisters had always been a sore spot for himself and his bullies knew that too._

 _"Look Joe," Jaune said, putting as much edge in his voice as possible, "they're not interested in you and I'm not interested in bugging them just so they can shoot you down."_

 _Joe's smirk vanished, and was replaced by the unmistakable snarl of anger, "so, think you're too good for us huh Jauney-boy," he growled, earning a laugh similar to carrion birds from his goons, "well what if I was to say that if you don't get them to hang out with us, we start targeting them instead?"_

 _Jaune's fingers bit into the palms of his hands almost drawing blood, but, remembering the wise words of his father, he swallowed his anger and attempted to push past them. But, before he could escape, a hand shot out roughly grabbing his arm, twirling him around Jaune was met with a fist to his nose from Joe._

 _Jaune crumpled to the floor like a house of cards, and he laid there desperately trying to stave off the growing heat in his chest. As Jaune got up he was met with an equally rough kick to the back from one of the other various goons surrounding him. Joe reached out to deliver another strike to his victim's head before his arm was caught by none other than Jaune._

 _Standing up he looked Joe right in the eyes causing the young boy to flinch, Jaune would not know until much later that his eyes had turned that venomous green for the first time, Joe couldn't even make out a word as the first punch connected inbetween his teeth and nose. An audible crunch sounded wetly through the small clearing earning a muffled cry of pain from Joe, and shocked looks from the others._

 _But Jaune was not done, he helped Joe's fall by slamming his head into the ground before kneeling over him, "_ _ **Don't. Touch. My. Sisters.**_ _" he growled, punctuating each word with another strike to the bully's face, neck, chest, and stomach. By this time the goons had either ran or were sitting there in shocked horror._

 _Jaune brought the half-conscious Joe's ear right next to his mouth, "_ _ **Tell anybody I did this and I'll smash your head like a pumpkin**_ _" he snarled earning a quiet whimper from the once cocky upperclassman._

 _Ever since that day his..."Eruptions"... only got worse with his family finally noticing after he sucker punched a kid for spilling his drink on him and refusing to apologize. He was immediately taken to a therapist due to his uncharacteristic behavior, after months of treatment and sessions the good doctor dropped the news that their son had developed another personality. He described as being a culmination of every negative emotion Jaune had felt through his life, furthermore the doctor explained that it seems to react independently from Jaune's usual demeanor making it even more dangerous, but the therapist was able to help the situation slightly. He had given the young boy(s) a coin and told them to use it to balance out eachother, at first Jaune was skeptical before trying to put it into practice, and, to their surprise, it worked and now the boys could atleast put some kind of barrier in between them._

 _Unfortunately, Jaune soon formed a dependency on the coin for a lot of his actions, blurring the line between wrong and right and worsening the emotional trench he was stuck in. At the age of 14 he had gotten his hand(s) on the coin he now was inseparable with, a double sided silver coin. The coin's side mirrored Jaune's personality with one side being crisp and clean, and the other being marred by knife scars and other wear and tear. The relationship between the two struggled onward, their outlooks on life and differing ideologies always led to a rather volatile internal war with eachother, with Jaune's dream to become a huntsman being constantly under fire from his alter ego's plans to become a wealthy criminal bent on money and power. The argument earlier that evening just being one of the very many they had with eachother, but what sparked earned quite the reaction from both of them: Nicholas Arc had flat out refused to give Jaune any additional training and would not give him his blessing to travel to Beacon Academy._

 _Jaune's abilities in Arc-style swordsmanship was abysmal at best, with the family blade Crocea Mors going to his twin sister Lazuli Arc instead of him after he nearly took off one of his fingers. That being said, the boy was not completely inept, his marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat skills were impressive, but, since they technically more-or-less belonged to his alter ego, it lacked one very important step: self-control. Jaune's alter ego always never knew when to stop or when to step back from the fight, only his much for amiable side knew such things, and their synergy on the battlefield was less than impressive. Needless to say, after 17 years of dealing with his son(s), Nicholas could do only one thing: remove the problem entirely._

0-0-0-0

 **Time Skip- Three Weeks Later...**

Jaune Alistaire, formerly Jaune Alistaire Arc, was currently sitting at the back of a dinky little dust shop known as "Dust Till Dawn" reading over the various usage of dust throwing annoyed glances at a hooded girl who was currently blasting music out of a pair of headphones.

" _ **Goddamnit all,**_ " Jaune snarled, already having a throbbing headache from today's events and humiliations, begging for chump change in the town square did not sit right with his more volatile side. Yes, without a penny to his name and only the clothes on his back he was cast out into the world of Remnant where he hastily made for on of the closest cities, in this case Vale.

It was at this time that more than a few suspicious person's walked into the store, very quickly they demanded the man's dust and cooperation. Wise in the ways of this world, Jaune left his actions to the almighty coin where it turned up bad. Shrugging it off thinking that if they didn't bother him, they could kill the old bastard and leave and he wouldn't say a thing. But, as fate would have it, two goons stalked over to the back where redhood and our "hero" were stationed. One of them walked over to the girl, while the other moved towards him; twirling his precious coin inbetween his fingers the goon got within speaking range and brandished his oversized letter-opener.

"Already blondie no sudden moves and we all go home," Jaune bit back annoyance at the man's tone but complied to see where things would go. The goon looked at him then at his hand, "ok kid," he said putting some edge into his voice, "don't do anything stupid and stay quiet, but for now give me that," he said reaching for the coin in Jaune's hand.

Jaune did not hesitate when he shattered the thug's hand and fingers...

The strangled squawking of the idiot thug brought the attention of the other thug who had been busy with the hooded chick. Caught inbetween his demands towards the girl and the sight of his partner in an iron grip, the girl acted sending the man flying backward and doing the same to another nearby goon.

Jaune sighed as the remaining henchmen and a stupid looking prick in an equally stupid hat rallied to fight what he could only assume to be a huntress-in-training from her weapon. A scythe the size of Jaune that was currently holding off the people who had robbed the store, Jaune suddenly had a brilliant idea come to mind... Well two of them that is.

He quickly flipped his coin and when it came down Jaune was staring at the scarred face of one of Remnant's popular historical figures. A blue-eyed Jaune let our a quick _Tch_ before his eyes turned green and a large smile broke out on his face. Picking up the gun from one of the downed goon's and grabbing whatever cases of dust he could carry he ran out into the street just in time to see the bowler-capped man fleeing with the red reaper in tow. "Perfect"Jaune thought as he chased after the duo, the reaper was closing in on Mr. Gingerlocks and Jaune saw with some apprehension that another newcomer had entered into the fray, this one looking a lot more experienced.

As the Bullhead attempted to leave with Gingerbread and whatever was left of his gang Jaune saw the struggles they were having from the reaper and the old crone. " _Perfect timing_ " Jaune thought to himself with a smirk, and, with a rush of speed, he sprinted towards the bullhead while simultaneously firing round after round towards the pair of huntresses. This caught them by surprise as they quickly went on the defensive giving Jaune enough time to leap into the bullhead as it escaped.

...

Now safely out of range Jaune got up and presented the stolen cargo to Captain Eyelashes who looked at him with thinly veiled curiosity. Silence pervaded the ship before Jaune broke the ice, "one hell of a job interview huh," he laughed nervously now that green-eyed-and-cranky was gone. The flamboyant criminal stroked a nonexistent beard before smirking and holding out a hand to shake.

Jaune took it happily and looked the man dead in the eyes.

"Hey kid," he said, that smirk never disappearing from his face, "what's your name?"

"Jaune," he replied quickly, "Jaune Alistaire."

"Well _Jaune Alistaire_ , how would you like a job?"

0-0-0-0

 **Wooh! Long chapter done up in a nice neat bow, or atleast I hope. This chapter has a lot of filler and exposition but I feel like this needed to be out of the way before anything else. Did you guys like that little 50-50 coin toss with Roman and Ruby? Don't worry Jaune is still getting into Beacon because someone is gonna want to have a spy on the inside.**

 **My new update schedule is hopefully one or two chapter every Friday-Saturday-Sunday. If I have to miss one I'll let you guys know.**

 **As always, thanks for reading and leave those reviews you know I love.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **-CoffeyJoe**


	3. Chapter 3: Little blood loss never hurts

**Coffey here again ladies, gents, and germs. I'm eternally grateful to come how to some positive and creative reviews regarding the development of this story after getting chewed out by my boss's Chinese mother. Not fun to say the least. But moving on, if you have an idea for some situations or plot devices don't hesitate to let the creativity flow my dude.**

 **Taking this advice I've moved the story in a slightly different direction, but trust me it will be worth it. Oh yes, even though in pains me to say this, do not expect this many chapters every week(end), this is me using my stockpile of plot development I had going for a week.**

 **I, in no way, own RWBY or anything of Rooster Teeth, or anything belonging to DC for that matter, I'd be a much richer man if I did.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

0-0-0-0

Young Lazuli Arc, second youngest sibling in the Arc family and twin to-

I guess she's the youngest now...

It had been a hard two months since her fraternal twin was cast out into the world with only that psychopath to keep him safe and in company. While she loved her brother with all her heart, his _company_ who was somehow given the name "Alistaire" (it was Jaune's middle name) could be described as a hostile stranger at best. While her Jaune would never let anyone hurt his precious sisters, she knew that Al was a lot less keen on the idea of familial loyalty; most likely even less so now. The thought send a cold shiver down the back of her neck, those green eyes had been the subject of many night terrors for her and her family, it almost made her father's decision seem reasonable.

 _Almost_...

Lazuli walked down the path towards her new home: Beacon Academy. A classy place with top-notch staff that churned out top-notch hunters for decades now. The sight of it pained her slightly, she knew Jaune's one dream was to come here and prove his worth to his _former_ family. Shaking these thoughts out of her head she made her way towards the building before she caught wind of some kind of altercation.

"Is any of this sinking in?!" she heard a rather snobby voice question, "what do you have to say for yourself?!" Lazuli went to got investigate but stopped after hearing what was either a small explosion or someone with the world's biggest cold, maybe even both. Inching towards the sounds of even more harsh scoldings and the subsequent stomping of booted feet, she caught sight of a very shaken girl on the ground. Making her way over she reached out a hand towards the fallen figure who stared at it before gratefully taking it.

"Sounds like you had a good first day so far," Lazuli prodded playfully, hoping to find some information about this girl, "you sure you're alright shorstack?"

The introduction of the new nickname earned an adorable pout from the young girl, "shortstack huh?" She questioned puffing out her chest and throwing her arms wide like she was in front of some crowd. "I'll have you know, I drink milk everyday!" She shot back with a look that meant she had thought she had one the verbal joust.

"Riiiiiggghhttt," Lazuli drawled, an incredulous look on her face, "we better get going before someone yells at us." The small girl shook her head promptly and followed the older looking girl in a hoodie-armor combo (Jaune's canon outfit). Before entering the door the younger girl, who introduced herself as Ruby Rose, Slayer of Grimm and Devourer of all things Cookie, shouted "Oooh! Ooh! Wanna see my weapon?" with eyes lit up like the sun. "Ugh, ok kid sure," Lazuli once more found herself a bit perplexed by the girl's mannerisms.

The girl produced her scythe-sniper combo in all of its badass glory, "this is my baby known as _Crescent Rose_ " she said with excitement like a kid on christmas. Lazuli's hand twitched at her less than impressive weapon before drawing it out, "this Crocea Mors," she said in an awkward tone, "it's a sword... And ugh... The shield turns into a sheath so that's cool... Ugggghhhhh" she continued not knowing how to make the weapon seem more splendid.

Ruby was about to comment before she heard the shuffling of bodies inside the large building and entered with her newfound friend grumbling something about the idiocy of these ceremonies. Upon entering Ruby attached herself to her sister's hip where upon Lazuli lost interest, spinning around her eyes fell upon a stunning redheaded spartan decked out in full armor and... High heels?

"Odd, but not entirely bad," she thought to herself taking in the equal parts sexy and intimidating look of the girl in front of her. She hadn't even noticed that the mystery girl had closed the gap and was introducing herself.

"Hello there!" She said sweetly, "my name is Pyrrha Nikos!" The look on her face looked like she was expected something from the girl, but Lazuli could not find anything familiar about her. "Sup," she answered crudely, earning a slight surprise from the older girl, "name's Lazuli Arc, youngest in the Arc family, how are you doing?"

Another surprised look from the newly dubbed Pyrrha, "do you not know who I am?" She spoke with genuine wonder. "Ugh, no?" Lazuli answered curtly, "should I?" At this Lazuli got something she was perplexed at: relief. The girl let out a deep sigh and looked back up with a smile, "finally someone who doesn't know about me!" Lazuli began to question her before the sound of microphone feedback rang out through the amphitheater, there stood the form of a green-clad man and his blonde assistant.

"I'll... Keep this brief."

0-0-0-0

Things were not going so great for Jaune/Al...

"So you have two personalities?" a white fang lieutenant asked.

" _ **Yes goddammit, do I need to tattoo it onto your forehead so you won't forget!?**_ " Jaune/Al barked back with enough ferocity to make the white fang member wince, if only slightly. Lt. Rufus would need to remember that the newcomer did not like being probed about his mental... Quirk...

"Ladies, ladies, please; we're not animals are we?" one Roman Torchwick interjected earning a very pointed look from Rufus and an equally pointed look from Al. After being taken in by the man, and forced to confess his life story much to the mirth of Gingernuts and his silent acrobat, he had been bombarded by even more questions from the various goons and grunts that he was now waist-deep in.

"Al, Jaune, whatever; we need your help with a little errand involving bookkeeper who can't seem to _keep_ his mouth shut." Roman said with notable annoyance in his voice, "get this job done right and I get my _boss_ to get her cronies to stop breathing down my neck so hard" he concluded with a faux smile. "Oh yes, and you'll earn a very special place in both my organization, and my heart." He said the last bit with a mock sincerity that made Al smirk a little bit.

"So is this a kill order, or do you want me to just let him know that he needs to fasten his lips together a little tighter?" a now blue-eyed Jaune asked with a face that was betrayed by the look of rising panic in his eyes.

 _Cling!_

 _..._

 _Whap!_

Roman regarded the now green-eyed newcomer with uncertainty, "this is a kill order, get it done quickly and quietly and we'll see about getting you a suitable weapon." The thought made Jaune close his eyes with a new headache that came in waves, of course he had forgotten something! Goddamn fool forgot to get a weapon, other than the peashooter he picked up that night.

" _ **Got it boss, no witnesses and no fuss**_ " Al stated coldly, Roman gave him a curt nod and uploaded the directions to his scroll.

Roman and Neo watched the boy leave through the side doors, "that's a powder keg waiting to go off," Roman regarded quietly to his subordinate who simply nodded before returning to her ice cream.

0-0-0-0

Tucson was having a very bad day, first his flight out of Vale was delayed and he couldn't just run without drawing suspicion, then this kid shows up and starts rifling through the more, _risque_ books like he was looking at cookbooks or religious texts. Tucson watched as he folded the book and returned it to its original place and stalked towards the counter.

"Every book under the sun huh?" the boy regarded with blue eyes that reminded him of the sea, cool and pretty on a nice day, but with dangerous predators lurking just beneath the water, "pretty goddamn arrogant slogan if you ask me." Tucson reared up to shout at the little brat before he found himself with a thin blade embedded into his neck.

" _ **Roman sends his regards idiot**_ " the knife was plunged out of the innocent bookworm spraying the red fluid of life all over the counter. Jaune looked over the corpse of the slain man, he felt like he was going to vomit before he was involuntarily jerked upward.

" _ **Tch, what did he think I was gonna use some stupid and completely absurd weapon to counter his attacks?**_ " Al laughed at the image that floated to mind, what an absolute fubar that would be. Dusting himself off he left and called Roman on his scroll to inform of his newly completed mission.

0-0-0-0

 **2 Days Later-**

The newly christened Team PNLR (Pineapple) walked down the street and towards the crime scene that caught their eyes. Getting closer they called the attention of one of the cops, it was Pyrrha that spoke first, "excuse me Officer, but what happened here?"

"Not pretty ma'am, looks like this old book keep owed some money to the wrong people, and he got the hard goodbye for his troubles," the cop said, shaking his head. Nora immediately exploded into a wild conspiracy theory involving the Ursai they had just hunted and how they were a part of the mob and how this was a warning to them, the entire time Ren attempted to placate her and Lazuli just watched, unknown that a pair of eyes were trained on her, along with the muzzle of a gun.

 _Cling!_

...

 _Whap!_

The hunched figure lumbered away towards the factory district of Vale and subsequently his new base of operations. His hands shook as he gripped the coin like his life depended on it, a small trail of blood droplets following him courtesy of his now leaking nose. The migraine was intense, like he just took a baseball bat to the head but it was worth it. After getting away he slowly let his blue eyes wander down to the coin he was gripping in his palm. Slowly, he uncurled his fingers and took it all in.

...

...

The scarred face of the coin looked back at him, sapphire eyes screwed themselves shut as he doubled over in pain at the new round of headaches and additional blood loss from his nose.

0-0-0-0

 **Oooooh, everyone loves a cliffhanger amirite? What could it mean? What is he thinking? Why all the questions? These will be answered at a later date ladies and gents. For now I drink myself into a sleep and forget about all the ice cream fuckups I made at my job. Goodnight, sleep well, and don't hesitate to get those reviews out, you know I love em'.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	4. Chapter 4: Meeting of the Minds

**CoffeyJoe back again for another thrilling tale of excitement! Sad to say that this chapter is gonna be a little bit of a setup to the new one but we will explore some more of Jaune's life. BTW, adding Lazuli as a stand-in for Jaune has actual merit for the rest of the story, but since most of this story is about Jaune we'll only be checking in on the Beacon crew every once in awhile so we won't see the inbetween stuff.**

 **Sorry for that, but for now just sit back and enjoy**

 **I, in no way, own RWBY or anything of Rooster Teeth, or anything belonging to DC for that matter, I'd be a much richer man if I did.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

0-0-0-0

Jaune stumbled through the industrial district of Vale like an alcoholic with a winning lottery ticket. His head pounded like a drum and he could swear that there was a phone ringing somewhere near him, but the pain wasn't nearly as bad as the internal war being raged within himself.

Catching snippets of the disjointed thoughts provided little help

" _-She's our sister_ "

" ** _-She doesn't care about us, she's living it up at Beacon_** "

" _-That doesn't give you the right to try and hurt her!_ "

...

Roman Torchwick stood in the middle of the warehouse desperately looking for a cigar hidden within his expensive white coat, those two goddamned brats Cinder employed over made him crave the smooth flavor of one of his imported cigars. Roman cast a quick glance around him to take it all in, _it_ being his life now, White Fang grunts moved shipments of dust with varying degrees of success. For once in his life Roman was grateful for the White Fang Lieutenant who was taking a load of his shoulders by directing the grunts who cluttered the floor; another glance to the side and he saw his personal bodyguard/assassin Neo currently carving a sticky path through another pint of ice cream. Roman stared into nothingness with a sour look on his face, "I'm not sure how this day could get any worse," as if the universe heard his call for a the great middle finger of life the doors to the warehouse slammed open to reveal a stumbling Jaune enter.

The jerky, almost frantic movements uneased the seasoned criminal, it was bad enough this guy had two personalities but he wasn't sure what he was going to do if this guy was secretly going nuclear in the middle of their headquarters. Luckily he quickly brushed past the grunts and, with equal speed, strode past Neo and himself grumbling a " _ **killed him**_ " before shoving his way roughly into what could be described as the dormitories of the base. Of course Neo and Roman would never bunk with these animals and crooks, and Roman felt a pang of happiness at the fact that they both had rooms in the upscale hotel nearby unlike their colleague.

...

Jaune stumbled into his near bed room that held the bunks of various other goons he worked with in the factory, luckily they were both alone in the room but just for good measure they locked the door and pulled out a nearby table to use for their _conference_. Drawing out the coin from their ratty hoodie they gently placed it on the desk and sent in spinning in almost perfect stillness and balance.

What followed next is what his former family called a "Meeting of the Minds" where both personalities would share equal footing to talk about their feeling and actions, or atleast that's how their therapist always put it. In reality it always devolved into a shouting match between the to and almost always escalated into destruction of nearby items.

...

"Why can't you just let it go!?"

green

" _ **Because you always hold us back when it comes to this shit!**_ "

blue

"Oh yeah, put it all on my like you always do you stupid, self-inflated prick!"

green

" _ **Atleast I don't go crawling back to the people that abandoned us!**_ "

 _Blue_

"We're not 'crawling back' idiot, all we did is not try to assassinate a huntress-in-training and draw the attention of entire _Academy_!"

 _Crack!_ Suddenly there was a new fracture in the wall...

 _Green_

" _ **Oh yeah, I'm sure that's it! It's not because you lack the ability, the initiative, or the balls to actually kill someone for once in your GODDAMN LIFE!**_ "

 _Blue_

"That's rich coming from you, I could have had a normal life! I could have gotten more training, developed normal emotions, worked hard to become a huntsman like everyone else, but instead I got stuck in a dead career as a hitman for a couple of fucking thieves because my dumbass alter ego left the deciding of our life go to a coin toss!"

 _Green_

" _ **Without me, we would have been stumbling around the streets as a homeless person waiting for Beacon to magically accept us into their ranks based on a little bit of heart and a slightly large-than-average aura!**_ "

 _Blue_

"I'd like to see you do better-"

"- _ **I did do better!**_ "

"You call this better? YOU RUINED MY LIFE AND I WISH YOU NEVER EXISTED!"

 _Silence..._

 _Knock Knock Knock..._

 _Sigh_

"Hello?" Jaune asked, putting his hand on the still spinning coin and placing it back within the safety of his pocket. He felt drained after witnessing a murder and almost killing his sister, and he was in no mood to listen to the babbling of more criminals especially Torchwick. "Ugh, the boss says he has something for you..." was the shaky response from who Jaune could only assume was some private trying to get in good with the actual important people. A snarl threatened to escape Jaune's lips but he swallowed it and opened the door, before him was a minuscule little dear faunus who couldn't bet less threatening if she was eating a snow cone and holding a puppy. Jaune shoved past her not caring to converse anymore with this peon, and, as he made his way back to the main shipping area, he thought about where he was going to go from this point forward. Eventually he's going to do something not so quiet and then he'll really be tied to this fate; he could only try to shake those thoughts out as a response. Arriving at his destination Roman regarded him carefully like a mental patient, "right, so now that the soap opera is over I want you to look over some plans for your weapon we're making," Jaune cocked an eyebrow in surprise, "quick right? We have more than one technical and mechanical genius in this place and they say they may have something." Roman shuffled some blueprints around on a nearby table before throwing one over to him, "here's what we're looking at for your weapon," Jaune eyes widened at what he was looking at.

"Yep, they say that they're going to get started once you greenlight the fucking thing, and by then it's only a hop, skip, and a day away from having yourself a weapon that would give a veteran huntsman a hard on." Roman remarked with a smirk, despite being a psychopath and an undoubted dangerous person, the person in front of him was just a kid, and kids could be easily impressed. Jaune didn't say anything as he looked over the specs that surrounded the thing, around 5 feet tall, gun barrel attachment that could fire dust rounds easily, aura-hardened teeth that could make a slurry out of a man's insides, and all of it was made of a reinforced mixture of steel, iron, and tungsten?

Jaune looked at the name skeptically

"Bonesaw? _**What a cheesy fucking name**_ _._ **"**

0-0-0-0

Lazuli Arc was currently finishing her homework from one java-fueled doctor who somehow had managed to suck the energy out of every student that got withing a 500 yard radius of him, but she was also trying to quell the feeling of familiar dread that was pooling in her stomach. Sitting up she looked around her dorm at her new teammates: Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, and Nora Valkyrie, the latter trying to get everyone else to share some stories about themselves.

Deciding that if she was going to continue with her sanity she was going to need a break, Lazuli conceded to answering some questions as did her team leader and the stoic ninja who were seated on their respective beds, "Ooh! Ooh! I wanna go first!" Nora squealed like a kid at Christmas, "my name is Nora Valkyrie, I like sloths, and pancakes, and bombs, and my parents, and Ren-" her face turned red, "-b-but, you know, not l-like like-like or anything like that right Ren?" she said looking towards her partner. He simply gave a curt nod and took it as his turn, "Lie Ren, son to Eikos and Lee Ren, martial artist and practitioner of marksmanship and acrobatics. Longtime childhood friend to Nora and her apparent caretaker when she gets in trouble, if you have a question just ask and I'll answer honestly." He finished politely making eye contact with both Lazuli and Pyrrha who offered kind smiles in return, Pyrrha took this as her turn, "my name is Pyrrha Nikos three-time champion of the Mistral Tournament and mascot to Pumpkin Pete's, but I really just want to find some people who see me as more than just a celebrity, I have a loving sister named Hera and both my parents, Leonidas and Thea, care for me so much." She smiled at what must had been a pleasant memory for herself, she then turned to the remaining member: Lazuli Arc.

She shifted slightly, "Lazuli Arc, short, sweet, and rolls of the tongues nicely," she remarked earning a small giggle from her redheaded partner, "I always wanted to be a huntress like the rest of my family, and really I'm just grateful for the chance to be here and I made a promise to not waste a single minute of it!" The others looked kindly at her, they appreciated her resolve, but then Nora piped up loudly, "your family!"

"Excuse me?" Lazuli asked slightly confused.

"You didn't say anything about your family!" Nora finished in a chipper tone. Lazuli creased her brow, "ugh, I have two parents and like 6 other sisters," the others almost face planted at this revelation, "yeah, most people do that when they first hear it," she chuckled lightly. "That's so cool! Is there anyone else that's cool in your family." This time Lazuli could not keep the wince she had been hiding down and the others took serious note of it, "not... anymore..." Lazuli finished with her face looking downward. Ren whispered to Nora to not ask anymore about and Pyrrha gave her a warm pat on the back before they all got prepared for bed.

Lazuli sat in the darkness of her room thinking about the one thing that hurt the most: her brother.

"Dear god in heaven, if you can hear me, please let Jaune be ok and in a relatively good situation."

0-0-0-0

 **There we go fellas! A quick chapter that is the buildup for the next one, as far as his weapon goes I had a few good ideas going and I think I'll use one later on in this story, but for now I got a goodass weapon that some of you might not agree with but to me I think it's pretty badass. But don't take my word for it, just wait and see! And yes, the other members of Team PNLR all have their parents intact and in good standing, and there's a reason for that down the road. Moving on, I got a three-day weekend so expect more chapters!**

 **Keep the reviews coming because I honestly need em'**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	5. Chapter 5: Heartaches by the Number

**CoffeyJoe back with another chapter just like I had promised for you guys. Finally we get to unveil Jaune's new weapon and, personally, I think it is going to be awesome. But like I mentioned before, there will be occasionally skips in the plot so we won't see everything that happens between RWBY, PNLR, and Torchwick's gang. But if you watched the show it will be easy to see where we are when the situation arises.**

 **I'm still trying to find a good relationship for Cardin and Lazuli since she isn't incompetent like Jaune would be, nor is she a leader that could challenge Cardin's authority. So tell me if you guys think this was a good way to sort that out, and for now just enjoy!**

 **I, in no way, own RWBY or anything of Rooster Teeth, or anything belonging to DC for that matter, I'd be a much richer man if I did.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

0-0-0-0

 **Three days later...**

Lazuli sat in Beacon's expansive cafeteria trying to quell the throbbing headache that threatened to pop her head open at any point. She was familiar with this type of pain and it made her feel sick to her stomach: she always got like this whenever her brother would get into trouble. See, Lazuli is the fraternal twin to Jaune, and, as the old wives tale goes, they held a sort of emotional and mental link with eachother. So, whenever Al would beat some poor kid into the ground, Lazuli would find him and drag him back to his parents so often that it soon felt like clockwork: go to sleep, eat, get a shower, wrangle her brother, eat, go to sleep.

Ruby watched as for Lazuli rubbed her temples as she sat on the end of the table, not conversing with anyone else. "Lazuli," she asked tentatively, "is everything alright?" Lazuli played it off skillfully, "yeah, just a mixture of yesterday's homework and a little too much coffee gave me an aching head rush," she answered, she was no stranger to trying to mask her feelings. Slowly, she lifted her head to gaze at her teammates and their subsequent sister team, Yang was catching food that Nora was throwing while Ren tried to dissuade her from doing so. Weiss and Pyrrha engaged in a polite conversation with eachother, and little Ruby was trying to catch a peek at whatever was in Blake's book, much to the black-themed girl's chagrin.

It was at that time they heard an accented voice cry out sharply, "Ouch! Stop that hurts!"

The teams looked over to see Cardin, Beacon's resident bully, and his gang of cronies pulling on the ears of a rabbit faunus. The assembled 8 hunters had varying degrees of disgust and anger, but none more so than Lazuli. Lazuli hated bullies with such a burning passion that it doubled her apparent headache, but she hardly took notice at this point; it was because of people like Cardin that Jaune developed that psychopath, it was because of people like him that her brother could be in trouble right now, and she wasn't going to have any of it. Standing abruptly, she walked with a determined pace towards the four thugs that had surrounded the girl, her friends watched with apprehension Lazuli wasn't a pushover by any means, with relatively good scores in her combat classes she was placed somewhere in the top 20 hunters of the freshmen. But this was different, there were four of them and while her friends would gladly get into a fight if they decided to gang up on her they could be too late to prevent a beatdown.

Cardin threw an annoyed glance at the armored girl in front of him, "the hell do you want shrimpy?" he barked, "don't you have your little nerd herd to keep you company?" The goons behind him tittered like a flock of carrion birds, the rabbit faunus, whose ears were still locked in a grip, looked up at her with concern. "Listen you ape," Lazuli growled in a tone that her friends hadn't heard before, "I don't give two shits about your stupid little fetish for faunus abuse, I honestly don't" Cardin's face grew red and there was a vein visible on the side of his neck, "but if you keep touching her like that I'll break your nose and twist your gang of butt-buddies into a pretzel." Lazuli's eyes never left Cardin's, and it seemed that at any moment something was going to boil over, and it did. "YOU LITTLE TWERP" Cardin roared like an enraged Ursa, he threw a sloppy punch at Lazuli's head only to be dodged and feel the grip of an arm bar that the smaller girl had put him in. Cardin shouted and shook and yelled at his team to help him, none of them moved and instead seemed to back up slightly from the faunus. Lazuli let him go, "piss off Cardin, this isn't highschool, you're a huntsman; act like it." she finished with growl, her threat worked and Cardin stormed out of the cafeteria, slowly, but surely, sound returned to the large room and Lazuli went to check on the upperclassman.

"You ok?" She asked in a gentle tone, years of looking after her sisters and brother taught her how to talk to someone who seemed shy. The girl looked at her and smiled, she extended a dainty hand and Lazuli shook it, "Lazuli Arc, short, sweet, rolls right off the tongue!" the girl laughed a little and shook her head, "Velvet Scarlatina, did your friends teach you that one?" she spoke softly with a accent that made her seem that much sweeter. "Thanks for the help, most people just like to ignore things like that, they decide it's not their problem," she said with a little tinge of sadness hanging on her voice, Lazuli gave her the patented "Arc Smile" and answered, "bullies don't really work with me, and your just as good a person as me, so there's no reason for you to be treated otherwise." Velvet beamed at those words, and accepted the invitation to their table where Lazuli talked and laughed with her friends, completely forgetting the dull throb that still existed in her head.

0-0-0-0

Jaune walked towards the wing that held Torchwick's shaky R&D Department, the "lab" was barely big enough to hold the necessary equipment to make the Jaune's new weapon. At his side walked his new boss Roman and the mysterious Neopolitan, "so what do you think of our operation so far _two-face_ " Roman chuckled at his new nickname for the boy in next to him, Jaune lips curled in distaste as he eyed the redhaired men warily, "you know we hate that fucking name right?" Ever since a few days ago the nickname has been floating around the warehouse as Jaune performed the menial tasks alongside the White Fang recruits, it was goddamn torture and it was the part of the job no movie or TV show would elaborate on.

"Oh I know," Torchwick said, that stupid smirk on his face, "that's why I use it, think of it as a term of endearment." Jaune only grumbled at the statement as they arrived at the doors to workshop. Opening the doors and walking in, Jaune took notice of something covered in a grey tarp situated on a metal table in the middle of the lab. Around it scurried a small man with goggles over his eyes, and a thick brown apron tied around his waist he eyed the new entrants with glee before he rushed in front of them, "greetings! Greeting! Hello!" The man replied with enthusiasm, He stalked over to the tarp and scanned the room's occupants, "prepare to be amazed, the ultimate in man-killing technology, made from only the highest quality material, I present: _Bonesaw_!" He ripped the tarp away revealing a weapon unlike Jaune had ever seen.

True to it's blueprints the chainsaw was nearly five feet long, more than half of it belonging to the blade. It had a handle similar to that of a longsword with a handguard that was little more than an angular piece of metal that was melded into the end of the handle and the bottom of the "pommel". Said pommel looked to be the chainsaw's motor, but it also held on its side what looked to be a mechanism to hold clips of dust rounds, on top of it was a handle that reached around the entire section similar to that of a large machine gun's, it was designed to help give balance to the user's grip. The blade looked to be a normal chainsaw, with teeth that wrapped around the entire thing, and long enough that it could easily shred through a full-grown Ursa with ease. Along the left side of the blade was an elongated barrel of a gun, but "cannon" might have been the better word to described it. The entire thing was a gunmetal black, with a tan bandoleer placed beside it.

"Yes truly magnificent no?" The gunsmith inquired, "made of only the highest quality metals to give it that hefty weight, while still being light enough to use like a sword." His hands traced over the entire thing gently, "the gun barrel attachment can be loaded with high-caliber dust rounds as well as explosive shots, the trigger for it is located near the top of the handle, while the button to start the actual chainsaw is located on the other side near where your thumb would be to provide easy use." Jaune was almost drooling at this point, sure he liked Crocea Mors but that was mainly because of its history, _this_ on the other hand was a weapon capable of dealing massive damage to anyone who got close. The gunsmith continued on, "we'll get some training in for you, Lt. Rufus has offered his services since your weapon is very similar to his, now get going I have other orders to attend to. Oh yes, and, that bandoleer is fitted for your chainsaw, the pockets on the front are designed to hold your ammo!" Jaune walked towards it with awe, wrapping his hands around both the handle and the grip on the motor he hefted the leviathan up, it was heavy, but true to his word Jaune felt it could still be swung around like a true sword with a little bit of training.

"Yes, yes," Roman interjected, "we'll get Rufus to come train you immediately, for now strap it to yourself and get your ass in gear, we have a PR meeting to talk about..."

0-0-0-0

Lazuli sat awake that night wondering where her little brother was, they all missed him even mom and dad. It hadn't been easy for either of them to make their decision, and it had kind of driven a wedge in the family, but somehow they all knew it needed to be done. She just hoped he was ok, wherever he was...

0-0-0-0

 **Two days later...**

Sounds of horrific metal screeching filled the empty loading docks of the warehouse, Al was currently trying to avoid being bisected by the Lieutenant's equally dangerous chainsaw while trying to get a grip on his own. Sparks flew overhead and the noise was deafening, but still Al persisted trying to be as agile as possible with _Bonesaw_ even though he knew he was outmatched. Jaune was undoubtedly more than a little weak, but Al could always pack more of a punch than he should have, so fighting with his new weapons wasn't as bad as it seemed. The cannon attached to it provided a good way to make an enemy back up, and it also allowed him to fight at long range should he need to; however, the damn thing packed a kick like a mule, the first time he tried to shoot he didn't brace himself enough and ended up flat on his ass. That being said, he was making significant progress with it. As they both took a quick break, Al let his mind wander off to what Roman had told him about the White Fang recruitment meeting...

" _Ok so, the White Fang seems to need more people to fight for them, with most of the world trying to exterminate them y'know?_ " _Roman had stated with a shrug. Jaune could almost appreciate the man's level of sass considering the stakes he was dealing with if it weren't for how goddamn annoying he could be, but there was nothing that could be done about that. Roman continued onward about he would be making a guest appearance at the "pep rally" so Jaune and Neo would be expected to provide backup should anything go wrong. So that meant a whole lot of standing around with Neo waiting for someone to be dumb enough to try and bring the whole thing down, then Roman finally said something that caught his attention._

 _"So, since you still need training I've got you a wonderful training partner," Roman stated gesturing to the colossal man who had been at the meeting as well. Jaune recognized him as the man who had been pestering him on his first day at the warehouse. "Yep, that's Rufus, Adam's eyes and ears at our happy little home, and also someone who wields a chainsaw just like you." The man identified as Rufus gave a huff at Roman's description of him before he eyed Jaune, "yeah, and since there's not time like the present get your weapon and meet me at the loading docks." He rumbled staring down at the young man. Blue eyes clouded over into green and, with a smug smile, Al laughed "ok big guy, let's have a little spar, but remember, nothing below the belt." Rufus chuckled darkly, "you won't have to worry about that."_

...

Rufus had been one hell of trainer and partner, he constantly beat Al into the ground during training and tried to gut him during their many, many spars. He had actually been the man who unlocked Jaune's/Al's aura since his father never bothered to, Rufus explained what this meant and taught him a little about the uses of auras and semblances.

"Your aura takes on a slight effect based on the person who unlocked for you, sort of like a tint to a color," Rufus taught with that same voice like sanded gravel, "so, since I unlocked your aura, expect to fight a little more... _Harsh_ especially towards humans and especially towards the Schnee family." Jaune gave it some time to think it over, and just decided to go along with it, surely there were worse people to get unlocked by right? Jaune picked himself up and grabbed Bonesaw for his daily progress report, "you're doing good, your attacks have become more agile which will benefit you when fighting someone who favors speed over attack, they'll peg you for a slow tank and won't expect you to move at the speed you can, use it to catch them off guard." Rufus continued to look over Jaune, "but, you're far from an expert, so don't expect to be able to fight off a team of hunters. Your get angry and become sloppy after awhile, so learn to keep that temper under control and try to strategize more on the battlefield, that brings me to my next point: you two need to work on your cohesion as fighters. If you to could learn and listen to eachother in a fight you would be a force to be reckoned with, but your petty squabbles and indecisiveness has costed you more than spar of ours. So, while i'm off with Roman at the meeting and you're with Neo, try to find some kind of common ground, you don't need to like eachother, but you do need to be able to save yourself in a fight." He finished with a sagely tone in his voice.

Jaune took it all in and decided he had a point, they did need to keep it together better, but for now they needed to focus on their next mission: Guard duty...

0-0-0-0

 **Two days later...**

Jaune sat near the helipad that kept their emergency bullhead in awkward silence, he kept trying to make conversation with the pilotl in front of him but to no avail, something was telling him he didn't give a shit. Al grimaced, guard duty my ass, they just wanted someone to keep the bullhead warm while they did their fucking pep rally or whatever, what a waste of a fucking night. The man in front of him didn't seem to mind, he sat there playing on his scroll and glancing around from time to time, the silence was killing him on the inside. Jaune rubbed the bridge of his nose in boredom, damn, why couldn't something cool happen for once?

" _Jaune! Jaune!_ " Rufus's voice crackled through his headset, " _things have gone to shit! We're evacuating the whole thing! Get to the bullhead and pick up Roman and Neo, they're in a Paladin!_ "

Several thoughts went through Al's head: What happened, this isn't what he meant when he wanted something to alleviate the boredom, and what the hell was a paladin? But now was no time for waiting, the pilot raced with Al onto the bullhead and started it up in record time, if they wanted to get to them in time they needed to go fast. Jaune could here the sounds of destruction emanating from the city, they didn't even need to radio in for their location, they just followed all the noise and explosions that kept popping up like a trail of bread crumbs. Reaching within a visible distance Al squinted to see what was happening, what looked to be a bunch of girls were fighting a giant mech that must have been the paladin Rufus was talking about. Roman, from what Jaune could see, was losing the fight albeit only slightly; that was until some blonde haired chick smashed through the goddamn thing like a pinata leaving Roman exposed.

Al ordered the pilot closer, they needed to get them out of there and fast, where the hell was Neo? She just walked off 30 minutes into their guard duty and never came back, just as the girls closed in and Al prepared to fire off a volley of gunshots Neo finally got off her ass and did something. She had blocked a direct shot from the blonde one and Jaune could feel relief wash over himself, now they just needed to fight them off and they could get out of there-

Blondie suddenly surged forward and made a direct punch into Neo's parasol and they...

Shattered... Like... Glass?

Jaune's heart dropped into his stomach, "please tell me they're not dead," he whispered in shock. He was about to tell the pilot to land when he heard a familiar voice behind him, "two-face! Good to see you came to pick us up!" Jaune whirled around to see Neo and Roman unharmed and ok, Roman had that stupid fucking smile still plastered to his face. "B-but, you and- how did?..." Jaune stammered trying to make sense of the situation.

"Later," Roman sighed, he pointed his cane towards the 4 hunters who were eyeing their bullhead and seemed prepared to strike, "for now we need to some covering fire, just keep them off our backs."

Al nodded and, pulling out Bonesaw, fired several high-explosive round at the huntresses on the ground. While not really killing them like he had hoped, it stopped them long enough for them to get a quick getaway. Jaune let out an explosive sigh of relief before regarding his boss and comrade...

"What the fuck just happened?"

0-0-0-0

 **Second chapter of the week ladies and gents! As you can see we had a quick check in with Lazuli, got Jaune a new weapon, had his aura unlocked, and advanced the plot some more. As you can see I did not add the fight Roman had with Penny and the others because I could not fit it into the rest of my glorious vision. For all intents and purposes, Ruby and her team did meet Penny and Blake did meet Sun Wukong, Blake's secret was also revealed and the only that happened is that they didn't fight Roman.**

 **I need more review guys, it helps me know if you're liking the story so far and if you have any ideas.**

 **Expect another chapter tomorrow, but maybe not one of Sunday.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	6. Chapter 6: Don't Stop Me Now

**CoffeyJoe here back with another Saturday chapter you you lovelies! I'm trying to work on Jaune getting to know Cinder and her team now that Neo's disguise has been compromised, but I also want him to be there at Mountain Glenn. In the meantime we'll get snapshots of Team RWBY and PNLR every once in awhile. I'll also try to get some good Jaune/Al dialogue in this chapter. And to clear up some things that might not have been obvious, in this story Ren, Pyrrha, and Nora all have parents that are alive. Also, just a side note, while Jaune is right-handed Al is left-handed so that is how he fights just in case you were wondering. Now onto the new chapter!**

 **I, in no way, own RWBY or anything of Rooster Teeth, or anything belonging to DC for that matter, I'd be a much richer man if I did.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

0-0-0-0

 **2 Days after the "Paladin Incident"...**

Jaune paced back and forth in the main section of the warehouse in anticipation, apparently the higher ups were coming for a visit to ask about what happened a few days ago and, from the way Roman flushed, Jaune knew it wasn't going to be pleasant. Neo seemed unperturbed by the news, but Roman was currently trying- and failing - to light his cigar with hands that shook ever so slightly. Jaune was about to ask a question when the doors to the warehouse were flung open to reveal three people standing behind them, the one in front was what Jaune could only described as enchanting: Raven hair over a pristine face that looked like it was carved from marble, a figure he knew his sisters would gladly kill for, and a red dress with gold trimmings that reached slightly past the top of her thighs. The two behind her must be her lackeys, with one grey-haired man dressed in a grey jacket and black running pants, additionally, there was a pair of what looked to be black boots but with a visible line of bullets wrapping around near the ankle, and the other of obvious foreign descent having dark brown skin and dressed in strange clothing, from her cut-off bra/tank top hybrid to her white pants and holstered pistols, they would have drawn the eyes of anyone.

Still, Jaune could feel something in the air around them, like a thick miasma of tension that he was all to familiar with. Roman walked over to them with barely concealed fear, "Cinder!" He exclaimed with faux joy, "what brings you to our happy little home?" He had been talking to the raven-haired one, so Jaune guessed that must have been the leader of the three, still, her look made Jaune more than a little anxious for Roman's ability to continue breathing. Cinder gave him a smile that was somewhere inbetween a smirk and a snarl, "Roman, why is it that I caught word of a bowler-wearing man prancing around Vale in a stolen Atlesian Paladin and his Neapolitan friend helping him escape from a White Fang meeting?" She had growled the last part which made Jaune's breath hitch in his throat, Roman looked around cautiously, "there must have been a security leak somewhere down the line, a couple of hunters had snuck in and attacked so I had to escape when I could it wasn't my fault!"

Cinder didn't seem content with his explanation, her eyes flickered over Neo and eventually to Jaune who tried his best to not meet her gaze while still seeming attentive. "Well now we have a major problem, Neo was going to be our fourth member for the Vytal Festival and now she can't because of your lack of pre-planning! I can assure you that if we still did not need you I would have immolated you and your posse here a long time ago." Roman swallowed nervously at the thought, he had seen her annoyed before but now she seemed outright angered at him. So, having to think quick to preserve his rapidly shortening life expectancy, he glanced back at Jaune and let a sly smirk cross over his face-

"You better not you motherfu-"

"How about Jaune back here? He'd make a great fourth member with his skills! The kid has already proven himself to me, and, if it weren't for him, I would have been captured!" Roman finished with sincerity, Jaune normally would have felt flattered at the compliments but he knew that it was just Roman trying to explain away his actions. Cinder scrutinized the boy heavily, she looked deep in thought before the grey-haired boy piped up from behind her "Him?" he asked incredulously, "the guy looks like he'd blow away at the first strong wind, I doubt he'd make a good stand-in."

Al suppressed a growl that rose in his throat, " _if tall, dark, and stupid over there wants to fight then I'll be more than happy to leave his team down another member_ " he thought to himself. He, naturally, would never say this out loud for fear of what Cinder would do to him; luckily, as tensions rose even higher, Cinder made her decision: "take him with you to Mountain Glenn, if he can get the needed operations done there then he's more than capable of being on team." she finished with a withering look to Roman. She brushed by the others and walked towards Jaune much to his hidden dismay, when she got within arms reached she made direct eye contact with him and said "when you got to Mountain Glenn you are to cover yourself completely, if things suddenly go south I don't want your identity being revealed either, so don't fail me with this." She said ending it with a tone that made the whole thing sound more like a threat than an order, but Jaune was more than happy to agree just so she wouldn't stand so close to him any longer. She turned back around and began to stalk towards the entrance, as she passed by Roman she mentioned "leave tomorrow Roman, this is your last chance, call me if anything arises." Not even bothering to look at him throwing him a slip of paper with a number on it and, with her lackeys in tow, she walked out the door.

As she left Jaune let out a breath, he shot towards towards Roman with green eyes and enough anger to make his head spin, " _ **I swear to god Roman if you ever do that to me again Cinder won't have to put you down herself!**_ " Al snarled earning a glare from the seasoned criminal, but he still said nothing. With a huff he strode over to the dorms shouting something about not bothering him, Roman looked at his back as he left before glancing at Neo, "wonder what he does in there when it's just them two alone." Neo made an obscene gesture that made Torchwick cringe at the thought, "gross Neo, don't plaster that image into my brain" he finished before getting preparations for the trip to Mountain Glenn.

 **...**

Al slammed into his room and, with a single look, ushered the others inside out before slamming the door and locking it. He quickly found a nearby desk and removed their precious coin to place onto the desk before spinning it.

"This is why we should have just taken our chances at being a huntsman!"

 _Green_

" _ **Don't bring this shit up again, there's nothing we can do-**_ "

 _Blue_

"I'm bringing it up because I knew becoming a criminal would land us in this fucking situation! Now we have to go along with a bunch of fucking psychopaths for god knows what, I'll bet you 100 lien that they'll just kill us by the end of it!"

Silence...

"We can't just keep going like this, it's going to land us in a worst situation than even now, but since we can't do anything at the moment we'll just have to roll with the punches."

 _Green_

" ** _If it weren't for you I could be so much more than this, you hold me back from what I could truly be just because you have some stupid fucking fantasy of being a huntsman, grow up you failure and face the music: without me you're nothing._** "

 _Blue_

"The feelings mutual prick..."

The coin lost equilibrium and felt onto the side of the desk with a soft _clink_...

0-0-0-0

Lazuli sat in her room with only Pyrrha to keep her company, another headache had passed by minutes ago and she could feel the roots of anxiety begin to coil in her stomach, her brother was in trouble again. Noticing the oppressive silence Pyrrha forced a smile "so are you excited by the Vytal Festival? I have my family coming to cheer me on and I can't wait, even the dance is getting me excited!" she exclaimed with a now genuine smile. Lazuli's lips curled slightly, "unfortunately, most of my family is busy but they'll be watching me back home. Although, my eldest sister did say she was coming with the Atlas officials so I may see some of her, but she'll most likely be too busy for a lot of hangout time." Pyrrha walked over to Lazuli at her bed and sat down, "is everything alright? You've seemed kind of out of it lately, first with Cardin and then after what happened with RWBY and Torchwick I'm beginning to think something is wrong." Lazuli tried to come up with some sort of way to get out of it but could only find a sigh, maybe this was just something she needed to get off her chest.

"Pyrrha," she asked quietly.

"Yes"

"What would you do if someone you loved was in a bad relationship with someone else who dragged them into bad situations and forced them to depend on them." Pyrrha seemed worried and though it over, "I would do my best to separate them-"

"But that's just it, they can't be physically separated by anything. The person I care for is out there right now alone and helpless with only an abusive psychopath to rely on for any sort of help, I can feel that he's in trouble and is scared but I can't help him." Pyrrha's worry melded with a deep confusion, "I-I don't understand exactly what you're talking about-"

"Jaune"

"Excuse me?"

"His name is Jaune and he's my fraternal twin." Pyrrha gasped, "and he's in an abusive relationship?" Lazuli nodded with grief etched into her facial features, "yeah, but not a normal one like you would think." Pyrrha once more became confused and was about to ask something when Lazuli answered for her.

"Jaune has split personality disorder, his alter ego, Al, his a very dangerous and volatile person and it got Jaune disowned and thrown out of the family." Lazuli heart clenched and she could feel something rise in her throat, "and now he's alone and in danger and he's too innocent and good a person to do what it takes to survive, meanwhile Alistaire is going to drive him to do things he won't come back from." Tears fell freely now as Lazuli tried to make sense of the situation, her sisters had looked but it to no avail as he seemed to have fallen off the map which meant death or a much worst alternative. Pyrrha brought her in close for a hug and stayed there with her for as long as she cried for, neither of them kept track of time as she let her pent up emotions out. By the end Lazuli still felt worried, but she atleast had someone who knew what she was going through and would be there for her. "Come on," Pyrrha said, "dinner is going to be starting soon so let's meet up with Ren, Nora, and the others." Lazuli nodded wiping her eyes and proceeded with Pyrrha towards the cafeteria.

0-0-0-0

Jaune had arrived at the Mountain Glenn hideout just under 2 days ago and had proceeded with getting everything loaded onto the large train they was vital to their plans. Dressed in a white fang officer's gear with a mask to go along with it and a hood to hide is noticeable hair, Al stood next to Torchwick as he watched to grunts move boxes of explosives and supplies back and forth, without look he asked Roman " _ **so, what exactly do we need from exploding a train in the middle of an abandoned subway?**_ " Roman glanced at him, "we're not blowing it in here you nitwit, we blow one car at a time to draw in a wave of Grimm before blowing a hole in the center of Vale, this subway happens to be the quickest route to our point." Jaune paled at the thought, "we're releasing hordes of Grimm into the city? Why?!" Roman just shrugged, "not my place to question the higher-ups, and, if you don't want to be turned into a puddle of goo, you won't ask any questions either. Jaune was now extraordinarily on edge...

 _Cling!_

...

 _Whap!_

Jaune growled as the old scars on the coin looked back at him mockingly, if he saw Torchwick look at him sharply he did not care. Taking a deep breath Al brushed past Torchwick, " _ **I'm going to make sure we're on schedule**_ " Roman smirked once more, ' _someone's more than a little cranky today_ ' he thought. Al tromped through the encampment throwing glances at the faunus around him, if any of them knew he wasn't a faunus they certainly did not speak up about it, the thought of it brought a smile to his face beneath the Grimm mask ' _as it should be, I get the respect I deserve and no one screws with me_ '. Suddenly he heard the sounds of rushing boots and, as he glanced towards the sound, he saw two recruits he had stationed personally for guard duty: Figs and Perry, they were dragging a small girl with each one having a hand looped underneath on of her thin arms. Al looked up at the two before him, " _ **the fuck is this?**_ " he barked, Figs paled slightly but recovered with grace, "sir, we found her after she apparently fell through a sinkhole on the upper streets of the city, what should we do?" Jaune gave the girl the once-over and suddenly felt his stomach drop, that black hair, that frilly red dress, and that round face "oh shit" he said to nobody, he shook his head clear of the thoughts and picked the girl up under his arm, "good job men, tighten up security I want re-checks of all the sectors around the base right now!" The two recruits saluted and went to carry out the orders as Jaune ran with the girl over to Torchwick who was currently working inside on of the cars.

"Torchwick! We have some bad news." Jaune could hear an audible sigh from inside the train car, "how bad? I really can't take anymore bad news today" he said, popping his head out to look at his underling. Jaune merely gestured to the child underneath one of his arms as Torchwick rubbed his temples, "that's... Very bad news..." Suddenly the girl began to wake up and started to struggle, "let me go you stupid white fangs!" she shouted, hitting his arms without the strength necessary to cause any damage. "Oh boy..." Was all Jaune could mutter as he looked towards his boss who had his head in his hand, "tie her up in one of the cars and do not let her out of sight!" Torchwick shouted as Jaune boarded the train. He entered into the car behind Torchwick's and proceeded to have a couple of soldiers tie her up and place her along the wall, Jaune could only sigh as he could feel that things were about to get very difficult, like an old grandmother he could always feel bad tidings right down to his bones. He was snapped out of his musings by one of the older recruits asking him something, "so, you don't think it would be so bad if we got to have a little _fun_ with this girl right?" he said getting a little too close to the girl, Al looked disgusted but was about to flip for it before a voice said "absolutely not." Jaune looked at the recruit who must have been in his late twenties, from behind his mask he could see the way the girl struggled and cringed whenever the man got close or brushed up next to her, "come on! It would be quick and easy! Hell, you could have first turn!" Jaune lumbered towards the man who, while a little paler, did not back down, "I said no you fucking creep, now piss off to another car." Jaune kept his eyes on the soldier in front of him but he could still see, from his peripherals, the look of both relief and fear on the girl's face.

The recruit got angry at this point, "look here asshole!" He shouted as the other two soldiers in the car stood to the side glancing at both of them, "I've been busting my ass all day long for you fuckers and I deserve this! So I don't give a shit if you care or not, I'm going for it!" Jaune didn't back down though, "I'm giving you one last warning to get the _fuck_ out of my sight you goddamn savage." The man growled and strode towards him with fury, "fuck yourself! You think I'm going to listen to-" The man didn't finish as Al had already laid him flat on his back with a precise punch to the jaw. As the man tried to struggle to get up Al looked down on him before losing it...

He brought his boot down on the man's jaw with a wet _crunch_ before doing it again and again and again...

" **I'm. The. Fucking. Boss. You. Fucking. Listen. To. Me. You. Fucking. Animal!** _"_ Each word accented by another heavy stomp as both the girl and the other soldiers tried to back away from the volatile man. The soldier's head was completely caved in and chunks of bone, blood, and brain littered the floor around the man's crushed head like a grotesque halo. Blinking away his green eyes Jaune took what he done in, he lightly rolled the carcass of the man off the train car's edge with his foot before sitting down across from the girl. He motioned for the recruits to stand guard, "sorry for that" he whispered to nobody, only to be met with silence. He eyed the girl warily, "your name?"

She wouldn't look him the eye, but still managed to whisper out "Ruby". Jaune was about to say something but what felt like a tremor rocked both the train and the surrounding cave, a few seconds later another tremor as the girl broke out into a smile. "What the hell?!" one of the guards shouted out, he could hear Torchwick yelling from down the line, he was about to go investigate but was sidelined by a red blur, knocking him out of the car. Groaning, Jaune got up only to notice the girl was gone, and, from the guard's expressions, no one seemed to know where. Al looked down to where he heard Roman only to see him and a small group of soldiers facing off against what must have been a team of hunters. Jaune recognized 3 of them from the paladin incident, and he guessed the fourth one must have been a professional due to his age the strange weapon he wielded. Turns out ol' Jaune's bones had been right, things were going to get bad. He watched Torchwick as the little girl came zooming out of nowhere and over his boss's head, she then ran off to join he friends as his allies opened fire onto the group. Roman mentioned something to a nearby soldier before hefting him up onto one of the cars by the end of his cane, most likely threatening him, he then let him go and walked back towards the cars.

More gunshots as Torchwick's voice crackled over the speaker, " _Get to your places we are leaving now!_ " Jaune grimaced before heaving himself onto the cars and sending the two soldiers away to be of some use in the setup. The cars suddenly lurched as they left the station, looks like the plan was in motion as Jaune ran towards the front where he knew Torchwick would be. He passed by another soldier who was shouting to others to get the hunters of the train, ' _beautiful_ ' he thought, ' _they got onto the damn train_ ' he entered into the front to find his boss and the driver. Torchwick glanced back it him, "the hell are you doing up here? Get to the car behind me and make sure we're not bothered if they get through!" Jaune rolled his eyes but complied, he unsheathed Bonesaw who was on his back before giving it a quick rev to make sure it still worked. Now all he had to do is wait for-

 **BANG!**

...

Looks like one of cars decoupled itself, who knows maybe that killed the hunters? Jaune looked out the side of the car only to barely catch a grunt who had been sent flying all the way to the front by the blonde one. ' _Or maybe not_ ' he thought with annoyance, he set the grunt down in the corner before closing all the entrances to his car save for the front access door. Jaune could hear the footsteps get closer as he made sure his disguise was perfect, wouldn't do to fail Cinder now would it? In fact, he pulled out his scroll and called Cinder.

 _Ring Ring Ring..._

 _Ring Ring-_

" _What?_ " the voice asked with an annoyed tone, "Cinder, it's Jaune, the train's under attack but we're making our way towards the objective, I need you there with a change of clothes for me if I want to stay in disguise. There was silence for a few seconds as the footsteps continued to get closer, " _Ok_ " was the only reply before she hung up. Al frowned, " _ **Fucking bitch**_ " at this point Al could hear some sort of fight on the other side of the door, was Neo here too? Whatever, it didn't matter so long as she held them off-

The access door opened to reveal a pair of girls, one dressed in black with some kind of sword in her hand and another one who seemed to be themed entirely in white with white hair, white dress, white shoes, and white skin she appeared to be armed with some kind of dust rapier. Something unpleasant stirred within him as he looked at the white-clad girl, a fucking _Schnee_. Unnatural hatred boiled within him as Al dragged Bonesaw across the floor to meet the two advancing huntresses, "you go on ahead!" The Schnee ordered the black haired one, as they got close Al went into a large swing to try to stop both of them but was countered by the black-haired one and promptly hit in the face by the Schnee. They stared eachother down for a moment, " _ **hehehe, finally I get to kill a Schnee**_ " Al chuckled darkly, he made another large arc to throw the girl off balance but she parried it with expert precision.

Al found his footing quickly and was able to block a stab before turning on his engine cause sparks to fly and temporarily blind the girl who was greeted with a heavy boot to the chest. He brought down the blade on her only for her to roll aside and give a couple stabs, one of which got through but was blocked by his aura; he did a full 360° spin and tried to bisect the girl only to once again be countered by some kind of dust force field, it knocked him off balance where she quickly went for another stab, instead of dodging it he took it head on which surprised the girl enough so he could grab her by her pony tail, using all his strength he swung her like a flail around earning sharp cries of pain from her before he let her slam roughly into the wall. He rushed forward, revving the motor, and tried to turn the girl's intestines into a smoothie, but she was able to expertly flip under it just in time. Back on her feet they exchanged a flurry of quick blows with Al gaining the edge every so slightly, Rufus had been right those who favored speed over power did not expect Al to move so fast, he caught her off guard before throwing a haymaker into the side of her head connecting successfully and cracking her aura. The girl stumbled back only for another boot to the face, but this time Al went all the way down and slammed her head into the metal floor making an indent. The girl slumped onto the ground, blood gushing from her nose and from the cuts on her face, she head the makings of several large bruises that would take weeks to heal fully. Deciding not to eat all his candy at one time he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her towards Roman's car as the sounds of fighting on both sides and almost completely died down.

Entering expecting to find a smirking Roman he found him on his back with a blade at his throat, recognizing the situation Al threw the girl down the steps and when the black-haired one got close he brought Bonesaw very close to the girl's head. The Schnee girl tried to mumble something " _B-Blake_ " she said weakly, the one he assumed to be called Blake weighed her options before bringing her swords away from Torchwick's neck, but not before knocking him out cold; Jaune didn't blame her. He picked the Schnee up and tossed her to Blake who proceeded to escape out the hatch above the car. Jaune made for Torchwick but suddenly the entire train shook before an earsplitting **BOOM!** rocked his world.

...

Everything went white for a spell before his senses returned. He crawled out of the car, completely forgetting Roman only to find the entire area he was in was surrounded by Grimm, lots and lots of Grimm. They appeared to be in some kind of town square, with the 4 huntresses (now down one thanks to him) trying to fend the monsters off, Jaune limped around the corner only to be dragged inside one of the shops, before he could react he felt something soft pressed into his arms. Looking towards the people in front of him he saw Cinder and her lackeys looking both pleased, and very displeased at the same time. Cinder was dressed somewhat different and in a less risque outfit, "put them on, stow away the chainsaw and stay down." She ordered and Jaune was all too ready to comply. As they passed by him and went to fight, he quickly changed into what clothing they had given him: a black shirt, brown jacket, jeans, his bandoleer, and a pair of brown lug boots, he was happy at the simple clothing design and finished changing. Having his bandoleer over his coat and his chainsaw put into a case he found in the shop (courtesy of Cinder) he stayed on the outskirts of the battle mainly just providing a few jabs and hits when he found multiple hunters ganging up on a group of Grimm.

By the end he found himself by his new "teammates" as they dragged a still unconscious Roman away and a bleeding Schnee into a medical vehicle with her teammates in tow. They were ordered back to the dorms by the teachers and when they got there they Jaune quickly fell onto the unclaimed bed in the room, before looking towards Cinder, "thanks for save there," he said genuinely, "Jaune goes to prison" isn't a story he would like to live out anytime soon. Emerald didn't say anything and Mercury only scoffed, but Cinder looked at her with another scrutinizing look, "don't mention it, Emerald, Mercury, get him up to speed I need to get his records into the system; Jaune was it? Jaune what?"

"You can call me Jaune Alistaire."

0-0-0-0

 **Oh yeah brother! Big chapter with a fight with Weiss! Feeling pretty good with this one as it's the first big meaty chapter since I've started. How did you guys like the fight with Weiss? I took notes from the actual fight but tried to incorporate Jaune's style into it, and I also got some good Lazuli and Jaune/Al dialogue in to! Maybe expect a chapter tomorrow, I don't actually know I have a lot of homework, man fuck APUSH.**

 **Leave reviews plz**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	7. Chapter 7: We Will All Go Together

**Ok, so you know when I said there may not be a chapter for Sunday? Well I lied. Needless to say I'm going to try and work on the clash between personalities since that is the main theme of this fic. Please bear with me because I a pretty mediocre writer, but if I want to get better I need some feedback like always.**

 **I'm thinking of keeping chapters to once per weekend with a schedule like this:**

 **Friday-First draft**

 **Saturday-Finish/revision**

 **Sunday-Revision/Submit**

 **I, in no way, own RWBY or anything of Rooster Teeth, or anything belonging to DC for that matter, I'd be a much richer man if I did.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

0-0-0-0

Jaune sat in his new dorm room and subsequent new base of operations alone, that familiar feeling in his bones had come back and he knew something was wrong. Jaune tried desperately to prevent his thoughts from being dragged back to his childhood home, but in the end there was no use in resisting so he let the feeling flood over him...

0-0-0-0

 _Jaune loved his sisters, he loved them more than anything in this entire world, more than being a huntsman, more than X-Ray and Vav, even more than his precious cereal Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes™. But Al hated them, they were always the biggest roadblock from getting what he wanted whether it be something small like shoplifting or something more drastic like beating some impudent kid into the ground, they were always there clinging to Jaune like a cancerous growth. His eldest sister, Sienna, was the conscience that Jaune lacked, she was a voice of reason and she always talked away Jaune's fears with cold logic. There was something comforting about being with a person who always held the answer he sought, she was never afraid of telling you like it is, but she wouldn't leave you in the lurch alone and often provided some sorely needed wisdom. She was at the top of Al's shitlist, the only person in the entire family that Jaune depended on for moral guidance, and thus, the biggest issue with Al's attempts at doing what he wanted. He remembered the day Sienna had first become his fountain of advice..._

 _Jaune sat alone at recess crying, like usual._

 _After Al had chased away most of the kids and bullied the remaining few into acting as his proxies for bullying, people no longer saw Jaune and Alistaire as separate entities. Parents complained and Jaune could often overhear the conferences between his parents, the principal, and the parents of whichever poor kid got beat up by Al that time of the month._

 _"He's dangerous!" they would shout at the top of their lungs, jabbing fingers to the door where Jaune lay on the other side. "Our child has been terrorized by that mental case for over 4 months, and your staff has yet to put their foot down."_

 _To his credit, Principal Manuel would often try to explain patiently that Jaune was receiving therapy and that his psychiatrist thought that proper exposure to other children was what he needed. At that, the parents would roar something about the safety of so many children compared to some disturbed child, that didn't hurt as much as you would think, Mr. Manuel would always come to his defense. That hurt more than anything..._

 _Because never once did his parents defend him themselves..._

 _Sienna knew how much that hurt him, and she seemed to be the only one who could feel how his parents affection for Jaune had begun to wither. She sat down next to him as he cried, she looked at him, and with a stern but gentle voice, she asked "do you think this is what a huntsman does when he stumbles for a bit?" Jaune didn't care though, Al had told him that it was pointless trying to become a huntsman. He relayed these thoughts to Sienna who just looked at him in thought, before she asked him a question he didn't expect._

 _"Jaune, are you and Alistaire different people?"_

 _Jaune looked at her confused, and when she repeated the question he answered, "y-yeah, I think so."_

 _Sienna nodded to him before continuing, "would a huntsman let someone else decide his career for him, or would he decide on his own?"_

 _"He would decide on his own of course! A real huntsman doesn't let anybody talk him down!" Jaune answered with passion._

 _Another nod from Sienna, "so if you and Alistaire are different people, and he tells you you can't be a huntsman, but a real huntsman doesn't let people talk him down, then why should you care about what he thinks?"_

 _Everything changed that day for Jaune, his eldest sister became his emotional rock and he felt like his purpose had finally had new life breathed into it. He couldn't feel happier and he vowed to become the type of man his father was: a hero._

 _Al had been furious, that night destruction reigned in their room. That bitch had somehow undermined years of mental manipulation in a few sentences, Jaune was now actively clashing with him and it was something he had never encountered. The more Jaune held his ground the more Al pushed, the classic unstoppable force meets immovable object scenario; and with devastating results. His "outburst" while shrinking in quantity, grew in intensity for years to come, and it alienated his parents from him even more._

0-0-0-0

Jaune sighed in his bed, it had been a long time since he relived those memories, they always seemed to spark bad blood between the two and today was no different. Al lazily sent their coin spinning on the night stand...

" _ **There a reason you're trying to bug me with those thoughts?**_ "

"You felt it too, I didn't want to go back there anymore than you did."

" _ **Why are you always so difficult about everything?**_ "

Jaune snarled, "excuse me? Who was it that got us wrapped up in a crime syndicate? Who landed us here with a woman who hardly feels human and her assassin-thugs who will probably repay us for our troubles with a knife to the back? When I look back on my life everything that has gone wrong has had one common factor: you."

" _ **Yeah, well this isn't exactly how I saw my life turning out either. I made the logical choice that had the best risk/reward chances instead of trying to fake my into a hunter academy using some smoke and mirrors. By all things equal, I'd say I've done pretty well, we're working with a couple of high-class assassins which is something few people can claim.**_ "

Jaune rolled his eyes, "oh yeah, I'm just giddy at the thought of sleeping in a room where 3 of the 4 people are in a club together and I'm the one person who is not essential to the plan."

There was silence as Al mulled it over, it was a good point. Once this Vytal Festival nonsense was over, they would be expendable, and more than that a liability, they were going to kill him once everything is done. Al frowned and shook those thoughts from his head-

" _ **Doesn't matter, we'll ride their coattails until we can make our getaway then we'll figure out what to do from there.**_ "

"So why even go through with this? Killing people and robbing dust shops just so we can run away once our only 'allies' betray us?" a sudden thought gripped Jaune, "you don't have plan do you? You don't have a single goddamn clue of what's going to happen soon and you think we can just keep rolling with the punches."

As if that wasn't enough another thought turned Jaune's blood to ice, "wait, if we're at Beacon then does that mean that Lazuli is..." he trailed off, eyes wide. Al was probably going through the same things he was, what was going to happen if Lazuli saw him? They'd be compromised, and they both knew what Cinder would do to them if they even mentioned this to her.

She didn't seem like the type of woman who wanted to hear about unexpected surprises in her plan, they were faced with a pretty bad choice: tell Cinder that there is a large chance they could be discovered, or don't tell her and pray to Oum that his twin sister didn't find him?

Neither of these options were very appealing, if Lazuli found him she would alert her family and suddenly all eyes would be on him, his team, and, worst of all, Cinder Fall.

The thoughts began to overwhelm him, what about class? What if he had a class with her? She'd begin to ask some very difficult questions, and from there it was all going to crash and burn, emphasis on _burn_. He slammed his hand down on the nightstand stopping the coin, Al shook his head once more and reached into his bag of supplies he got from the warehouse before Cinder torched it. Grabbing a bottle of pills Al downed a few of them, sleeping pills; they always seemed to take the edge off but today there was just a little too much edge. Torchwick, the one guy he kinda trusted in all this was gone, Neo was god knows where after the train incident, and he was well and truly alone in a hostile world. They were in major trouble...

0-0-0-0

Lazuli was seated at her usual table, desperately flipping through her notes as she prepared for another godforsaken exam from Professor Port. The man spent an hour talking about himself and then shoves a test packet at them expecting them to figure out the materials based solely on his "teaching". "If you paid attention in class this test should be easy for you!" that was his favorite line when it came to tests, Lazuli couldn't figure out what killing Beowulfs with a sharpened toothbrush had to do with their anatomy but ok fine.

Noticing her dilemma Yang spoke up, "Hey Laz don't worry so much, atleast take comfort in the fact that you'll do better than Weiss-cream for the first time!" she exclaimed with happiness.

A bandaged Weiss shot her a glare that could kill flowers, "what does that mean Yang? I'll have you know that a little kick to the head will never be enough to damage a Schnee's train of thought, we're built much tougher!"

Yang gave a snort before looking at Ruby, "so Rubes, how was being captured by the White Fang huh? I mean you escaped with ease so it must have been run like circus over there."

Ruby's thoughts moved a little too fast and she was suddenly dragged back to the train car...

 _Blood. Gore. That man's skull popped open all over the floor of the car. That beast standing over his corpse with his green eyes just barely visible behind the eyeholes in his mask._

Ruby was shaken out of it by her sister who was looking at her with a smile, "y-yeah, like one big party over there hehe..." Ruby trailed off before going back to picking at her nuggets. She hadn't told anyone what she saw or what happened, it's not like anything happened after all she just got a little shaken up.

Suddenly she could feel a figure behind her, turning around she was treated to the sight of both Velvet and Coco of Team CFVY, ever since the Cardin incident the three teams had gotten sort of close, atleast to the point where they talked and were on a first-name basis with eachother.

Coco glanced at the studious first years, or atleast the ones who were actually studying, "studying for Port's class huh? I remember doing that, a little tip, write down whenever something happens in his stories related to Grimm or tape his class, he likes to sneak in lessons regarding the material using those horrid stories of his." Lazuli let out a sigh, why couldn't the man just teach the damn class? Isn't that what he was paid for?

Lazuli leaned back from her table casting a look around, the cafeteria, usually filled with Beacon students, now played host to a menagerie of students from other schools, Haven, Atlas, Shade. The excitement in the air was palpable, even more so for the three teams assembled at this table, for they had all been given the great honor of competing for their school in the tournament. It was going to be great, everyone had been working with eachother and had been scoping out the competition from the other schools, there was going to be plenty of fun this year: Team SSSN from Haven would be great to see in some more combat, Lazuli had taken a liking to Sun's mischievous nature much to Weiss's dismay, then there were teams like NDGO who Lazuli could find great respect in for being an all-female team that were also tightly coordinated from what she had seen, and there were some more too like Team FNKI, Team BRNZ, and Team CJEM all of whom were supposed to be pretty good as well.

It was going to be one hell of a show, and, as Yang liked to remind everyone, it was going to go out with a _Yang_.

0-0-0-0

Jaune sat in his dorm room with his new "teammates", the mighty members of Team CJEM (Cajun) had gathered to finally discuss some of the plan.

"Slipping Jaune into the system went off without a hitch, and now that he knows the cliffnotes of our plan, he will be attending class with us tomorrow." Cinder had explained to the now named Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai who looked less than pleased at the newcomer.

"I don't know which I would prefer: Two-face or the ice cream addict" Mercury quipped sharply.

Al growled and thought about going in to punch the little shit in that perfect jaw of his, maybe knock out a few teeth in the process, Jaune clenched his hands and said nothing ' _just don't indulge him and he'll get bored_ ' he thought.

Feeling bold Jaune ventured further than was probably wise, "are you guys going to fill me on anymore of this plan of yours? I certainly don't want to fuck anything up because you didn't tell me something."

Emerald was about to snap at him before Cinder interrupted her, "No." she said, and Jaune suddenly didn't feel like asking anymore questions. Instead, he turned in for the night and, after a hot shower and laying out his new uniform for tomorrow, he hit the hay and was out before more of those dreaded thoughts could cloud his brain...

0-0-0-0

Jaune woke up as expected: irritable and tired. He rarely got a good night's rest anymore, there always seemed to be some foggy nightmare he couldn't remember to torment his dreams every night. He trudged down the hall and out onto the courtyard to face the morning sun that had just started to creep over the hills, he wiped some more sleep from his eyes before shuffling off to cafeteria to get some breakfast, and more importantly, some coffee.

Opening the door he slipped in with a small crowd and kept close to the wall, the danger was not lost on him, if his sister caught him then it would be all over before it even began. He grabbed a plate of eggs and bacon and brewed himself a cup of instant coffee, he stealthily walked towards a table near the back trying to scan the room for anyone that might know him.

Things were going fine until he heard what could only be described as the most ear-splitting, brain-melting, teeth-chattering voice echo through the room-

"HEIGH HOOOOO! GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!" a redhaired girl shouted, bursting through the doors followed by what must have been her team. An oriental man who must've descended from eastern remnant, the... Pumpkin Pete Mascot(?), and...

"Oh shit..."

His sister followed last with another group right on her heels.

"Oh shit!" it was that goddamn team of huntresses that derailed the train at Mountain Glenn.

He needed to get the hell out of this pit trap so he made a beeline for the doors, leaving his breakfast to congeal at the table, ' _goddamn, could they seriously not afford another door in this place?_ ' Jaune thought has his pace gradually slowed.

Something had been at the back of his mind since yesterday: how bad would it be if he saw his sister again? He had reached a full stop and glanced at his sister, they had plowed through the breakfast line and had gotten straight to eating cracking jokes with eachother, it looked like fun; like something he would have loved to be a part of. That familiar sting of loneliness threatened to come back, but before he could indulge it he felt a hand grip his shoulder; whipping around to see who it was he saw what looked to be a Beacon student with a pair of sunglasses and a dark beret on her head.

' _What kind of douchebag wears shades inside? And at like 7:30 in the morning?_ ' Jaune mused with a shocked expression.

The girl drew her glasses down a little, she gave him a once-over before smirking and wrapping an arm around his shoulder in an iron grip. Jaune was about to speak up when she did it first, and it almost made Jaune's legs buckle: "Hey Laz! This guys looks like you don't you think!?" she shouted across the cafeteria drawing the attention of the students, some of the staff, and worst of all his sister.

She looked around lazily expecting to see some generic blonde kid from another school who had the unlucky chance of being caught in Coco's clutches, "alright Coco," she asked amused raising her eyes to look at her, fork and knife still in hand, "who did you catch this ti-"

She felt like her breath was sucked out of her lungs, staring back at her was a face she thought she'd never see again: Jaune, _her_ Jaune! She tried to stand but her knees threatened to buckle, her silverware had long since found themselves on the floor, her team looked at her with mounting concern.

"Laz? You alright there?" Yang asked with genuine worry.

Jaune face was almost stark white, he felt like he was about to both vomit and pass out and, with the oppressive silence, he just might. Coco noticed the sudden shift in the room and let Jaune go, "Lazuli? Do you know him?"

Lazuli looked like she was about to cry as she took a tentative step towards her twin, "J-Jaune?" she whispered, but in the silence it carried like a gunshot.

Feeling like he was about to faint at any moment did the only thing he could think of: he ran. He ran like a bat out of hell towards the entrance, ignoring the looks of passing individuals and trying not to take too much notice of his "team" sitting slightly farther away with eyes like vultures that seemed hungry for him. Out of the entrance he kept moving at top speed to the dorms, he needed to grab what he could and go before the situation turned anymore south than it could. Arriving at his dorm in record time and packing his bag he whipped around only see the form of Cinder at the doorway, alone.

"Jaune, you and I need to have a talk."

0-0-0-0

Sound had returned to the cafeteria but now there were anxious glances being thrown at the students who were the cause of such an outburst. Lazuli was shaking and was white in the face, inside she felt such a torrent of emotion she almost collapsed twice now.

"Lazuli who was that?" Weiss asked from beneath her bandages.

Lazuli tried to make a sound but nothing came out, all she could do is shake her head. _Anger, Guilt, Happiness, Worry, Joy, and Grief_. All of it threatened to consume her, but before it could she felt a firm hand grip he shoulder, looking to her left Pyrrha held her gaze and asked in a gentle tone: "Lazuli, who was that?"

It took a few moments before Lazuli managed to choke out...

"I-It's Jaune, my brother."

0-0-0-0

 **There we go, a Sunday Funday chapter for you lovelies. Finally we get to see a little family reunion, and I promise it will be filled with as much awkward talk and pointed questions as you hope. I'm trying to portray Alistaire as a more manipulative personality because that makes the most sense, he would want Jaune to be completely dependent on him and his sisters would naturally be the biggest obstacle. But for now I need rest, have a good week and until next time. Also tried to format this chapter better instead of just having walls of text.**

 **Drop those reviews like a MOAB on a cave.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	8. Chapter 8: One Way or Another

**Chapter 8 is here and I hope you enjoy it. I'll admit I'm not sure what to do with the pairing so far but someone suggested Emerald so that might be our direction. Until then I'm kind of making up the story as I go so please bare with me.**

 **I, in no way, own RWBY or anything of Rooster Teeth, or anything belonging to DC for that matter, I'd be a much richer man if I did.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

0-0-0-0

The cafeteria sat in shocked silence at the spectacle they had just witnessed, eventually conversation awkwardly drifted back into the grand room and everyone returned to their now cold food. Team PNR and RWBY sat there trying to console the shellshocked blonde at their table to little advantage.

"Look, I don't know what he means to you, but we need you to calm down." Pyrrha said as gently as possible, the snarky blonde who acted as their glue had never been this shaken up.

Lazuli shook her head and wiped a tear from her eye, she knew that this situation was somehow both bad and good but she couldn't process her emotions enough to decide which. All the while, her team and Ruby's team tried to get her to calm down and talk, and it was at this moment that Coco had joined the scene.

It took minutes to calm the upset girl but eventually her breathing returned to normal, Coco slid a glass of water to her which she happily drank in the span of a few seconds. Lazuli took a deep breath and her eyes flickered over the assembled hunters-in-training.

"That was my brother Jaune." she began to explain. Lazuli then went into a more detailed depth about what had happened and why Jaune was kicked out, the process of explaining brought back memories she'd rather not dig up.

0-0-0-0

 _Things were beyond tense at the Arc household, ironically now that the source of the regular tension was gone there seemed to be an even more oppressive feeling in the air. No one dared to stop the male Arc as he trudged into his room, even as the shouting began, inevitably, nobody breathed a word. Eventually Alistaire exploded from the now destroyed former room of the Jaune's, he barreled through the house with barely anything other than a knapsack of what everyone assumed to be essentials for his new life on his own. Hours later, like the aftermath of a bomb, the remaining Arc siblings dragged themselves into the living room to sit around, feeling fractured and incomplete..._

 _"Jaune had problems, he did and there's no denying it, but this can't be what needed to be done." Noire Arc whispered quietly, more to herself than anyone. Her 6 siblings gave a ghost of a nod in dumbfounded agreement._

 _There was a pregnant pause that couldn't have lasted for more than a minute, but it might as well have been hours until Sienna once again spoke up, "there's nothing we can do, but try to help him any way we can." it sounded as if Sienna was beginning to choke up, an action thought lost to the rest of the family._

 _Another pause, everyone was imagining the worse-case scenario for Jaune and Al. Some of them imagined waking up to a news headline reading "Violent Maniac Gunned Down by Vale Police" with a picture of their now dead brother, others feared waking up with a familiar set of green eyes looming over them. Nicholas and Olivier Arc are notably absent to comfort their children, although that seems to be a reoccurring theme now._

 _"I have to return to Atlas and General Ironwood soon, so I won't be of much help in this matter, but I'll keep an eye out for Jaune." stated Sienna, who then got up stiffly and walked up the stairs._

 _Melody couldn't hold it in anymore and finally broke, hot tears falling onto her sundress as she tried to reign in the scared sobs that came from her throat. Joan inched closer to her crying sister and wrapped a protective arm around her._

 _"It will be ok Melody, Jaune's strong in his own right and... you know Al can't afford to let Jaune be hurt."_

 _Melody shook her head, "I'm not worried about Jaune getting hurt, I mean I am but... even without Alistaire he's going to have to do some terrible things if he doesn't get lucky and land himself somewhere good."_

 _The Arc sisters swapped tortured expressions for a moment before returning to silence. "We can try to do something for him, afterall if somehow we could get Ozpin to take him in as a secretary or maybe a janitor then he would atleast have a pair of eyes on him." ventured Indigo hopefully._

 _"No, even if we could talk to Ozpin there's no chance he'd let someone as volatile as Al anywhere near a group of students, hunter or not." interject Joan. "Not to mention there is no way Alistaire would sit at a desk and behave for hours on end."_

 _The girls once again spent more time trying to figure out what to do, but each idea was shot down by an equally plausible flaw. In the end the plan of action was to help him if they found him. With Sienna returning to Atlas she said that maybe if she could catch Jaune then she could put him through some rehabilitation program so she could keep an eye on him, but that meant that she would have to prove to Ironwood that Jaune was worth the risk._

 _Melody and Noire both promised to write to Beacon as that was most likely where Jaune would go to ask for Ozpin to keep his eye out._

 _Indigo looked especially tortured as they concocted these plans "good god I hope he hasn't gotten into anything too bad."_

 _Silence once again draped the room._

0-0-0-0

Joan had received her acceptance letter to Beacon days later, her parents tried to use it to cheer her up but she could only call back painful memories of her and Jaune promising to make it on the same team.

But now he was here, with her and Pyrrha and her team plus RWBY. She wanted to feel relieved that he wasn't lying face down in a gutter, but she also had the nagging question of ' _why is he here? Did Haven really accept him?_ ' somehow she couldn't believe that even Mistral would do that.

Yang could only sit there shocked at the tale of Joan's mysterious twin brother, Blake had managed to put down her porn book for once which was big enough in itself, Ruby looked worried at her first friend's condition, and Weiss chewed on her lip tentatively.

Joan's team wasn't much better, Pyrrha looked like she was caught in between going to the teachers for help and hugging the poor girl, Ren sat rigid with a cold face etched out of stone looking back on the world, and Nora had stopped her usual bouncing and talking to eye her friend with a worried expression. Coco was currently fighting an internal war over whether or not she should have brought out her brother like that, it wasn't like she had done it on purpose but now she was scared that she had hurt the poor girl.

Seeing no better option other than to return to her dorm, Lazuli said a curt goodbye to Team RWBY and Coco who tried to go after her but she only barked at them to leave he alone. However, her team would not be so inclined and followed her back to her dorm.

Entering the dorm with her team in tow, Lazuli collapsed onto her bed and almost immediately fell into a deep sleep despite it being only 7:56 in the morning, and on a Sunday.

"Well atleast he isn't dead..."

0-0-0-0

Jaune and Alistaire were well and truly _fucked_ with a capital "F".

Cinder had entered into the room and somehow cornered the duo, she stood there in Haven's bland uniform, but she could not have been more intimidating if she was holding Bonesaw over their crotch.

"So, Mercury and Emerald tell me you got into an altercation with a student during breakfast?"

Jaune knew it was no mere question, it was his one chance at explaining himself.

"L-Look, I didn't know she was going to be here! I swear! And I wanted to tell you but I-"

"Nice looking bag, going somewhere?"

Fuck, he had forgotten his plans at getting the hell out of this pit of vipers but now that was out the window. He needed to think fast and get this woman a solution that involved his continual breathing.

"Ok, ok! I get it, you don't want any problems," Cinder raised an eyebrow, "B-But look, I can fix this there's no need to kill me I swear!"

Cinder was getting tired of this psychologically fractured boy's ramblings. She was used to hearing people attempt to explain themselves to her, but his submissive tone was beginning to grate on her nerves. "Spit it out!" she barked harshly.

Jaune winced, but he knew this was his one chance. "Look, if I just change my look a little she won't ever know it's me I swear! I picked up some good acting skills from my other sister and I'll really sell the image." he hesitated to look the woman in her eyes.

"Who is she?"

"W-What?"

"The girl, who is she?"

Jaune swallowed, but his mouth remained dryer than the Vacuan desert. "My twin sister Joan, but look she won't be a problem we haven't talked since I left and she doesn't know anything about me."

Cinder seriously considered killing the boy for a moment, but of course that would mean getting ice-cream girl to take his place which was infinitely worse. This kid may have some skill in combat, but he wasn't a very crafty or shady person like Neo was, so he could stay.

"It seems we need to get you a new look then" she said to the still air of the dorm. "And I know just the person."

Cinder pulled out her scroll and her fingers flew across the screen in a quick message to somebody. Not a minute later a black-haired girl in a gothic lolita-style dress and boots entered through the dorm's door. She had green eyes much like Al's but there was something off, the girl blinked and they turned into a brown and pink duo.

"Neo?" Jaune asked in disbelief, if it weren't for the circumstances he would have tried to hug her and promptly received a knee to the groin for it. Despite their... tense... relationship, Jaune saw Neo as the last bastion of safety in this world now that Roman was in the slammer.

She smiled a faux smile at him and turned to Cinder, she took out her scroll and typed a message across it. Cinder glanced at it and said "yes, get something good for him to wear, nothing too fancy and do bring some makeup." Neo shattered like glass once again, similar to what happened with the Paladin incident before disappearing.

Al recoiled, he was a trained psychopath not some doll to be dressed up, he felt a chill go up his spine as he remembered what Jaune's sisters used to do to him. Al was about to raise a question but a sideways glare from Cinder shut him up fast.

Another minute and Neo returned, this time her arms were laden with clothing, bottles of something, and small black kits of what he assumed was makeup. Cinder stalked out of the room, but before she went she stopped at the door.

"Oh yes, and Jaune? Mess up like this again and your dear sister will find a suspicious box of ashes delivered to her door."

Al tugged at his collar before nodding, not that she could see it.

And with that she walked away, leaving him alone with Neo.

"I'm glad your okay Neo, atleast not everyone is out to string me up by my innards." Jaune remarked. Neo shot back back with an expression that radiated a "are you sure about that" vibe.

"Ok I get it, but seriously, I'm glad that you're not dead or with Roman. You're the last person I can trust."

"..."

" _ **Fine, tolerate more than these other goons.**_ "

Neo whipped around with a look of glee on her face, uh oh that meant she was either about to do some dumb shit or some dangerous shit.

Usually both...

In her arms she held a bottle that Jaune rotated his head to see.

"All-Natural Men's Dye: Midnight Black"

" **Goddamnit all.** _"_

0-0-0-0

Jack Pònaire walked down to the cafeteria early Monday morning. The weekend had been a living hell of taking down some notes and watching tutorial videos for the past 22 hours. His stark black hair was combed over and slicked back to give him a "smooth look" as his bastard "friend" had told him, honey-colored eyes scanning the room for threats and, finding none, he pressed onto the line. He shuffled through it in a daze and tried to prepare for his upcoming assignment given to him by his team leader.

 _"Find out what they do know, become friends with them, and really cement yourself in their circle of pals."_

Easier said than done, but you didn't exactly say no to a strong woman like that.

You didn't exactly fail either.

Poor ol' Jack made his way out of the mass of students, and, breakfast in hand, made his way to what he called "The Seventh Circle of Hell".

And right he was, Jack had made it just in time to witness the blonde boxer put the little one in a headlock that she fiercely protested against. Luckily the largest mountain had not appeared yet so he pushed forward with all the courage he could muster.

"Hey thar' girls! This seat taken'?" Jack remarked cheerily, thick Irish accent clouding his voice.

"Oh-hoh! It seems one of you transfer students really does have the stones to come over here!" the blonde one remarked much to Jack internal cringement.

"Aye, afraid me team is feeling slightly under the weather so they couldn't've made it to breakfas', but my mom always said strangers ar' just friends ya haven't met yet!"

The smaller one wormed her way out of the mighty headlock and bounced nearer to him, "oh that's so cool! You can totally sit here and talk with us, I have a friend who's just like you too!"

"Aye, is that so?" Jack wanted nothing more than to cut and run but he knew he wouldn't run very far. Jaune silently thanked Noire for making him help with all her recitals, and character practices, and blah blah theater blah blah thespian blah.

0-0-0-0

 _"Not bad Jauney! Not bad at all! You really got this whole 'character personification' thing down to a tee!" Noire said ecstatically. Poor ten year old Jaune had just finished another grueling session of "practice" with his sister Noire._

 _Noire Arc had always been fascinated with theater, and dramas, and movies and nothing excited her more than acting. Even as a kid she knew that the silver screen called to her and her alone, and it showed too, there were few who could claim to be child actors at age 5. Albeit, most of her gigs were with local commercials but still they were something!_

 _She wore a red turtleneck and faded jeans that hugged her body tightly, her knee-high zipper boots had been tossed to the corner of the room along with her heavy wool coat. Her ponytail of blonde hair was wound tightly behind her head and always bounced when she laughed. Noire was the one who helped Jaune come out of his shell when she was younger, when he would begin to feel embarrassed she'd always one-up him with a rousing display of theatrics usually in front of the class. This shock therapy so to speak finally got Jaune talking._

 _"I like your voice work too! You have a knack for channeling your character's emotions!"_

 _Jaune took these compliments with a grain of salt, he knew they were just said to keep him from leaving. After all, without Jaune, who would act out her favorite scenes from all her books?_

0-0-0-0

Jack cracked a smile at the team that talked amongst eachother. The Schnee whose head he kicked in was healing up nicely, there seemed to be no permanent brain damage and her bruises had begun to fade.

"Good"

" _ **Damn**_ "

"So, Mr. Pònaire, where do you come from?" Weiss asked cordially.

"Call me' Jack mam'. And I hail from the southern part of Mistral, I worked thar' with me mom and dad for years on our farm, but it turns out me family saw the makings of a hunter in me so they sent me to Haven. Now am' jus' honored to be here to represent me family and academy."

"Such a rich history! You must be quite good to go from a farmer to a hunter in a few years!" Weiss replied with a crafted look of shocked awe.

' _My god, are all Schnee's like this?_ '

"Well, I jus' do me best and kinda' roll with tha' punches y'know?"

The blonde one, Yang apparently, cracked a smile "Oh yeah? I can appreciate a man who knows how to go from 0 to hero!"

"Yang!" Ruby cried. "You're being mean! He could have been a 10, or a 37, or like a 68 when he was a farmer!"

Jack cracked another smile, this time one more genuine with the conversation. He mentally sighed, ' _is this what I missed out on? All these little exchanges between friends?_ '

The thought waned his smile, but he was cut off by the Yang once again.

"Ay yo P-money! Over here! We made a new friend!"

' _Shit_ '

"Oh is that so?" the one known as Pyrrha Nikos smiled. She was as beautiful as an amazoness should be, built like a tank but sculpted by the gods above, apparently he admired her a little too much because Yang once again broke the silence.

"Looks like someone has the hots for you P-money."

Jack stuttered and tried to collect himself, he stood up stiffly and held his hand out towards the woman "Jack Pònaire mam', jus' here for the Vytal Tournament but I hope we can be friends!"

She returned the handshake with another one of those warm smiles, something stirred within Jaune something he had never felt before. He was so caught up that he hardly noticed Joan walking out from behind Pyrrha.

"So, you hailing from Haven then?"

The moment of truth had come.

"Aye, Mistral's me home an' I plan to make 'er proud!"

...

"Sounds great dude! Maybe we'll see eachother in the tournament."

Thank the mighty Oum's boxer briefs.

"Ooh! Ooh! Jacky-dude, why do you sound like a total poof?!" the ginger girl, Nora from what he could have guessed based of Yang's description thundered.

Al snarled and Jaune felt embarrassed, but they managed to keep it under the constructed mask of Jack and opted for putting one hand behind his head and giving a chuckle.

The oriental boy, Ren, chided Nora on her vocabulary and tried to explain how insulting that had been to their foreign friend, but he could tell none of it was sinking in. The teams enjoyed their breakfast and continually chatted about classes, Mistral, and the world. Pyrrha was excited to meet someone else from Mistral because, as she explained excitedly, she hailed from Mistral herself. Jack tried to keep up with her and attempted to fake as much as possible considering he had never even been that far outside Vale.

Ruby was watching something on her scroll when Yang peered across it, "yo Rubes, watcha watching there?"

"You didn't here Yang?" Ruby questioned. "After Torchwick got caught apparently leadership is thought to have gone to this Lt. Rufus character."

' _Oum! I forgot about Rufus! What is he doing running Torchwick's operation?_ '

"Hmph, looks to be the brute that attacked me on the train." Weiss said, sticking her nose into the air like she was too good for it.

"The one with the chainsaw? The one who clobbered you like a 20 dollar wh-"

"Hardly! Although he was wearing a hood."

' _Atleast this day hasn't been complete shit._ '

"Eh who cares, I'm more worried about Port's class."

Jack decided to throw his two-cents into the ring, "Port? Who's that?"

Everyone, including Pyrrha, looked at him like he had grown a second head.

"What? He's just a professor."

0-0-0-0

By the holy Oum's leotard did this man every shut up?

Jack had learned that Port was something of a braggart but this shit was torture, if someone asked him right now to spill his partnership with Cinder he'd probably flip for it just to have the chance to get away from the man.

I bet prison would be quieter.

Ruby, who was situated next to him, was drawing a crass rendition of the Professor and showed it to Jaune like it was the Mona Lisa. Jack stifled a chuckle at the girl's antics, it seems even hunters knew how to act like children sometimes.

"Mr. Pònaire!" boomed the Professor. "Something you are finding funny?"

"N-No sir, never! Jus' had a cough!"

"Mmm, good. Now, back to my story, I was alone with a deathstalker shimmying his way up the mountain-"

Jack tuned the rest out until class ended.

As Ruby and Jack walked down the halls to History with Oobleck she glanced at him.

"So Jack, have any family?"

Jack hesitated, "Yeah, I guess, me' folks are still back home and me' sibling too, although we kinda got distant."

"Why is that?"

"We had too many differences for someone related by blood."

Ruby nodded, although she had no clue what that meant.

"Sorry to hear that, if it's at all possible you should try to make up with them." she replied in a voice that reminded him of a small child.

"Ye' I wish I could, but we don't really understand eachother."

"Huh, you know I have a friend who deals with something like that." once again Ruby said with that same chipper voice.

"You... do?"

"Yeah Joan, but if I tell you you have to pinky promise you won't tell!"

"Ruby that's not-"

"PINKY PROMISE!"

"Ok! Ok!" Jack linked his pinky with her in the timeless ritual of secrecy. She swiveled her head around like she was expecting someone to listen in on their conversation, she searched up and down and left and right. She pulled Jack into the wall and glanced over his shoulder like his shadow was listening, seeing it was safe she looked at Jack's honey eyes and began.

"So Joan has this brother right, but his family threw him out because he had a few problems." Jack nodded along, now noticing how dry his throat was.

"Joan and her sisters miss him a lot, and she thought that he was going to get hurt but yesterday at the cafeteria she saw him!" Ruby said, shoving his hands out explosively. Jack gave what he hoped was a surprised whistle.

"Sounds like she's got a lot on her plate, but does her brother love 'er?" Jack asked earnestly.

Ruby thought about what she was going to say next, "she thinks he does, but she honestly doesn't know. She says that he can get confused at times and suddenly he isn't like himself, which is sad because he sounds so nice."

Jack nodded his head, "yeah, I'm sure 'e is. I bet if Joan keeps looking she'll find him, and she'll find that 'e misses her just as much and that 'e loves her.!"

Ruby's eyes widened. "You think so?"

"I know so!"

"Thanks Jack! You're so cool! Just like Joan!"

Jack chuckled, "and you're a good friend Ruby, don't ever forget that."

The warning bell signaled their heart-to-heart was over and they rushed to class.

But Jaune couldn't convince himself that the sinking feeling in his stomach was related to what he ate at breakfast.

0-0-0-0

 **Woohoo! Longer chapters, more talking, more planning, less bullshit! Jaune gets into the thick of it and finds himself around a new group of people who don't murder for fun. What will happen with so much time spent around these new influences? I hope he isn't having seconds thoughts. Sorry about less use of the their coin, but if Joan caught wind of some guy tossing coins for decisions she would know it was Jaune.**

 **By the way, Jack Pònaire follows the color naming rule! Pònaire is Irish for "bean"**

 ** _"Canavalia ensiformis, or jack bean, is a purple legume which is used for animal fodder and human nutrition, especially in Brazil where it is called feijão-de-porco. It is also the source of concanavalin A."_**

 **-Wikipedia**

 **Reviews and such, you know I love you!**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe.**


	9. Chapter 9: Lone Star

**Back again with another chapters for you lovely people. Not much to say except that this week has been mad crazy, AP classes really take a lot out of you y'know? Next week I should be feeling better.**

 **I, in no way, own RWBY or anything of Rooster Teeth, or anything belonging to DC for that matter, I'd be a much richer man if I did.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

0-0-0-0

Jack woke up bright and early at 6:00 AM like always.

Maybe "bright" isn't the best word for it.

"Damn, why do I have to do all this shit?" Jaune muttered quietly.

He stumbled out of bed and delved into his scarce wardrobe for his haven uniform and laid it out on his bed. Damn thing was uncomfortable but atleast you could get it on quickly enough. Now was the hardest part of his morning.

The makeup.

Jaune meandered over to the bathroom where, underneath the counter, he collected his various assortment of makeup supplies he needed. His hair was already stained that dreadful black so things could go a little bit quicker, emphasis on _little_ considering he would have to spend hours like this everyday. The first thing Jaune started with was the contacts, honey-colored and perfectly concealable he didn't take long to put them on.

Now came the actual hard part. Jaune sighed as he brought out Neo's blush and applied it like she told him to, well, not really _told_ but you get the idea.

0-0-0-0

Jack entered into the cafeteria at around 8:15 where the first couple of students had begun to enter, and he knew his "charges" wouldn't be too far behind. Seriously, for such a chaotic couple of teams they followed a schedule like clockwork. Jack walked over to grab a meager breakfast and sat down at their usual table; just in time to see his new "friends" enter in their usual boisterous manner.

Jack sighed, "let's just get this over with."

It wasn't long before Team RWBY and PNLR had crashed their way through the cafeteria and seated themselves alongside Jack for their usual talks before morning classes.

"So Jacky-boy" inquired Yang. "How're you liking Beacon so far?"

"Aye, it's been good ta' me!" Jack laughed.

"Yeah, but Professor Port's lectures have been getting worst, it's like he wants to be as boring as possible until the excitement of the festival starts." complained Lazuli.

The whole table shared a collective chuckle at that until Jack could feel a familiar pair of eyes boring into the back of his head, reminding him of his job.

"So guys, how'dya like to hang out later today, I heard from an inside source that today's homework can all be found online." Jack said leaning in to the group.

Weiss scoffed and said something about Schnees not cheating on tests, Yang, Nora and Ruby looked very intrigued, and Pyrrha, Lazuli, and Ren picked at their food with varying degrees of interest.

"Oh hoh Jacky! Are you asking all of us fine ladies out on a date?" Yang smiled while wiggling her eyebrow.

Jack's blush was honest this time and Ruby chided her sister saying something how Jack wouldn't do something like that to which Yang laughed. The rest of breakfast carried on like that until the bell sounded for class.

0-0-0-0

"So, Jaune is going out for a night on the town with RWBY and PNLR huh?" Mercury asked from the back of the cafeteria.

Emerald looked at Cinder, "is that ok? Can we trust him to not compromise the mission?"

"Oh don't worry Emerald dear, Jaune knows exactly what will happen if he screws up I made sure of that." Cinder grinned darkly. Emerald looked to Mercury who just shrugged and went back to playing on his scroll.

' _So, it looks like he's made the first move, good._ ' Cinder thought to herself.

0-0-0-0

 **5 hours later...**

Teams RWBY and PNLR plus Jack were walking the streets of Vale perusing the shops and trying to keep Nora on a metaphorical leash (Ren mostly). They had stopped to get a drink at a local stand and chat about the day.

"Might fine day for a walk if I do say so meself." affirmed Jack with a look around. The teams had changed out of their uniforms and were wearing their casual clothes for walking around.

"Pfft yeah, but what in gods name made you think you should wear that." Yang asked with a smirk. Jack blushed and tried his best not to look uncomfortable, he had just grabbed what he Neo had given him and not thought twice, but he now readily regretted that.

Damn bitch had it out for him in her own sick way.

Jack was dressed in a white dress shirt with red suspenders and a red bowtie covering all around it, a pair of black dress pants, and a pair of black and white sneakers. Overall, he looked like-

"A huge nerd, seriously you couldn't look any dorkier if you were wearing milk-bottle glasses." Yang teased causing Ruby to jump to Jack's aid.

"Yang! Stop being so mean to poor old Jack. He didn't do anything, and I think he looks good." Ruby blushed after that realizing what she just said. "I-I mean, no, i-it's just that you know you look like all prim and cleaned up y-you know?"

Jack could only smile and shake his head at the smaller girl's bashfulness, it made him wish he could have been better friends with her in another life. So far recon was going good, Jaune know knew a basic strategy atleast (although "break their legs" and "beat them until they surrender" weren't very sound strategies) and kinda picked up on their team setup.

If only everyone could be such an open book, it would make life so much goddamn easier especially with Cinder.

0-0-0-0

 **2 hours later...**

Jaune stepped out of the shower now looking much more like himself and feeling more than a little sluggish.

"Ah yes! Our potato farmer has returned to us!" snickered Mercury.

" _ **Watch it iron-pubes or you'll get a size 13 1/2 vasectomy via my shoe.**_ " Al growled at the boy which made him shoot to his feet.

"Yeah psych ward? I'd like to see you try it."

Al snarled at him like a dog defending its territory. " _ **Listen here douchebag-**_ "

"Shut up. Both of you." Cinder interjected, not looking up from her scroll. Both of the men returned to their respective corners of the room, still silently glowering at eachother, Emerald couldn't be happier.

' _With any luck, they'll kill eachother before the end of this_ ' she though with glee.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Jaune got up to look through the peep hole to see a black-haired maid standing outside. With a sigh Jaune opened the door only to find himself standing in the middle of an empty hallway, cautiously he closed the door before he felt a hand pinch "south of the border".

"Wha-" Jaune choked out, whipping around to see Neo. "Dammit Neo, don't do that!"

Neo, for her part, really didn't look like she gave a shit and turned around to deliver something to Cinder. It looked to be a small, folded up note that Cinder took and read carefully before smirking.

' _Oh shit, here we go_ ' Jaune thought to himself.

Cinder chuckled which promptly earned a response from Mercury.

"Something interesting you found?" he asked carefully.

Cinder nodded, "oh yes, but don't worry it won't change out plans _too_ much."

That uneasy feeling in Jaune's stomach was left festering inside of him.

0-0-0-0

Lazuli crashed on top of her bed, utterly exhausted and feeling more than a little worn out. She let out what must have been the 11th or 12th sigh in the past few hours and mulled over her life right now.

On one hand, the Vytal Festival was coming up and her team had a good chance at participating, class had gone by smoothly, and the dance was sure to be a major blast with her team.

But on the other hand, her brother and his psychotic alter-ego has somehow entered the school, she has no idea where he is or what he's been doing, she's unsure whether to go to Ozpin for help, and her team and friends will be utterly useless in this matter.

Not great...

Ren had been in the room since the rest of the team got back to the dorms and decided to pitch in. "You know Lazuli, if your brother is here then that atleast means he is under the control of one of the headmasters right? They don't allow just anyone in."

Lazuli opened her eyes and nodded slightly as Ren continued "if their headmaster saw fit to allow him access into another Kingdom's school, then he must have gone through some psychological training or rehabilitation. Didn't you say that Jaune always wanted to be a hunter? Well now he is, so he must be making strides right?"

Lazuli sat up, that was a very good point. Furthermore, there have been no incidents thus far and the transfer students started coming in weeks ago. Maybe she just needs to talk to him a little and catch up. For the first time in awhile Lazuli breathed a sigh of relief and laid back down on the bed. She felt blessed to have her team with her, Pyrrha the calm and strong leader, Ren the collected voice of reason, and Nora the bubbly-

Suddenly, she shot up with a look of horror on her face. Ren noticed immediately and asked her "Lazuli? What's wrong?!"

"R-Ren, where did Nora say she was going to do."

"Grab a quick snack in the... kitchen... with the syrup for tomorrow's breakfast..."

Thunderous crashing echoed throughout the dorms. Ren and Lazuli shared a quick glance at eachother before rocketing out into the hallway and down the stairs as shouting could be heard from the rooms below.

0-0-0-0

Jaune stood in the mirror, brushing his teeth, before he felt the dorms shake violently like they were under attack. Jaune bolted out of the room, "what's happening? Are we under attack?"

Mercury, Emerald, and Cinder had already gotten up and began their way to the door before a voice stopped them.

"I'm queen of the castle! I'm queen of the castle!"

Jaune thought that Goodwitch was gonna have a brain aneurysm by the time she was done sorting out his sister's team...

0-0-0-0

 **The next day...**

Another day, another hour of makeup.

Dear god he pitied his sisters...

Jack sat in combat class next to Mercury and Emerald watching the Goddess Of Victory beat down Team CRDL in a most spectacular fashion. Jack had to admit, it was pretty funny to see the big one knock out his teammate with his own mace. And then of course Pyrrha threw him into the ground using a mid-air somersault.

All in all, a good match. Goodwitch stepped up onto the arena, "ok class, I know that might be tough to follow but I believe we have two more matchups for today. Any volunteers?"

She scanned the crowd when no one raised their hand and focused in on Jack.

"Mr. Pònaire please step up to the stage, and will Ms. Arc please follow as well."

"Yes ma'am."

"Alrighty."

Jack and Lazuli faced eachother, Jack looking calm and collected despite the meltdown he was having.

Jaune was drowning in a sea of emotions ranging from love to grief and Al wanted nothing more than to rip Lazuli's throat out like a Beowulf. All in all, things were getting dicey but Lazuli looked, at most, slightly excited.

"Alrighty Jacky-boy show me what you got." she said, stretching her arms.

"Ma'am, me weapon is getting a touch-up in the shop. D'ya mind if I jus' use me hands?" Jack asked indicating to Goodwitch.

She thought about it for a moment, "ok, but don't expect me to grade you any lighter because you don't have a weapon. Now get changed."

They both nodded and returned with Jack in his "casual" clothes and Lazuli wearing her full armor and wielding Crocea Mors proudly. Al bit back a growl at this _bitch_ mocking them with that stupid letter-opener.

They quickly got into their stances with Lazuli holding up her sword behind her shoulder and her shield out front while Jack stood tall with one hand poised near his left temple and the other bent outward like a modified boxer's stance.

"Begin!"

Jack rushed Lazuli hoping to catch her off guard, Jaune knew that the armor would slow her down however minimally. Jack lashed out with a palm that connected with her breastplate throwing her off balance slightly, Jack then went into a leg sweep but Lazuli, using her momentum, did a backwards roll and shot to her feet.

Lazuli launched forward with a stab to which Jack sidestepped and threw a coordinated punch to her head. It connected but Lazuli managed to shift slightly making it not connect head-on and, with her aura, it only dropped her maybe 5%. Lazuli spun like a top and made a strong slash to his midsection but Jack knew how to counter it perfectly.

Jack caught the blade between his right arm and knee, pinching the blade in a cross-block. Lazuli, being surprised at his reflexes, didn't have time to react to Jack firing out his leg and into her stomach with a forward kick. Despite her aura, the kick knocked the wind fully out of her and she skidded back slightly. Jack inspected the sword for a brief moment before tossing it out of the arena, no sense in leaving it for her.

Lazuli, still doubled over, didn't expect Jack to deliver a Muy Thai knee to the front of her face and she howled in pain. Black spots danced in her vision and she didn't have time to react as the next punch came like a bullet into her jaw. Lazuli sank to her knees, headed twisted to the right where she slowly turned it back around to see the familiar black pants of Jack.

She threw up her arms in a sloppy block but the punch never came. Peeking through her arms she no longer saw Jack but just empty space where he had been; thoroughly perplexed she shifted her head to the right only to come into contact with a resounding _Crack!_ as Jack delivered another blow to her jaw.

Lazuli folded like cardboard and drifted into blackness. She barely heard Goodwitch call the match as unconciousness took her fully.

"That's the match! Ms. Nikos, please take Ms. Arc to the infirmary at once." Pyrrha nodded and rushed from the stands to gently pick up her partner and bring her back to the nurses office.

"Mr. Pònaire, not bad considering your weaponlessness, but you need to work on your strikes as I saw gaps in it and, please, no more showboating with that fake-out trick, it is unnecessary."

Jack nodded and returned to a smirking Mercury.

"Not bad psych ward, thought you might've broken her jaw."

" _ **Wanna see if I can?**_ " Al grumbled threateningly.

Mercury gave another colorful smirk but snapped his attention back to Goodwitch who had offered another round. Mercury cut her off as she was about to choose Blake Belladonna to fight and that was where Jack stopped paying attention.

0-0-0-0

 _Jaune sat outside, classes having ended awhile ago, alone and on a bench with no one but himself and his alter ego to confide in._

 _"They seem like nice people." Jaune remarked offhandedly._

 _" **They seem like total idiots** " Al scoffed mentally._

 _Jaune thumbed his precious coin and flipped it_

 _Clang!_

 _..._

 _Whap!_

 _" **No use in getting buddy-buddy with them, if you're lucky they won't die by the end of this.** "_

 _"Well hey, if it's any consolation, if they die then we're most likely going to be dead as well!"_

 _" **Haha, very funny dipshit.** "_

 _"I bet it's hot in hell, tell me, do you like warm weather?"_

0-0-0-0

Jack returned back to the combat arena to see Mercury striding away with more swagger than Jack thought possible. Seriously, if the guy's ego was any larger it would be radiating off him like aura. Jack shook his head an prepared to head home since this was his last class for today.

He made it 4 steps before his phone went off.

"Goddamnit." he sighed.

He opened his scroll to find a simple message,

 _Need 2 talk, meet me the cafeteria -Neo._

Oh boy, this was going to be fun.

0-0-0-0

 **Done and done lovelies! Sorry this chapter wasn't super exciting, has to be a filler one every once in awhile I suppose. Mainly going to be caught up in AP shit for awhile. Thinking about writing a new fic alongside this one, it has a premise I also haven't seen before. If I do go through with it it'd be updated every Wednesday. Still a WIP tho.**

 **Read and review.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	10. Chapter 10: Misión imposible

**Back again with another chapter. Vytal Festival is coming up guys and you know what that means! Anyways this week has been hectic and i'm afraid to inform you guys that there won't be a chapter next week. There with be a chapter for my other fic sometime this week tho.**

 **Anyways, read and review.**

"Hello"- Normal speech

" _Hello"-_ Actions or thoughts

" **Hello"** \- Inner monologue

" _ **Hello**_ "- Other Jaune talking

0-0-0-0

Jack walked out of the hallways that held a few meandering students and into the courtyard where he hastily made to his objective. He reached there a couple minutes, around back from the transfer dorms, and waited for his contact to meet up.

He sat alone for several minutes, waiting and waiting, but before he could just call the whole thing a joke to waste his time he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder.

"GAH!" Jaune screamed as jumped.

He turned around to find himself face-to-face with Neo, eyes mid roll.

"Damnit Neo! Don't do that!" Jaune said angrily, the girl was going to give him a heart attack one day. And, knowing her, she'd make some strange joke as he died on the floor as well.

Neo fished her scroll out of her pocket and tapped the screen with lightning speed.

 _Shut up and listen, we have a major problem._

Oh dear, if Neo was nervous then shit must have hit the fan pretty hard.

" _ **Ok, what is it?**_ " Al asked slowly, although he was sure he knew the answer.

 _I know for a fact that Cinder and her cronies are getting rid of us post-haste._

Jaune's breath caught in his throat but he stifled it, he knew this was coming he knew it and had been preparing for it.

Well, he atleast knew about it...

" _ **Ok, that's nothing new we'll just-**_ "

 _No, you don't understand. By the time we'd have an opening to run she will have already killed us. There's something she's doing that she really doesn't want anyone to know about._

Al took a moment to think about that, he knew that Cinder would most likely do away with Neo, Roman, and him by the end. But, if she was so eager to get things done, then that meant she was cooking up something real nasty.

" _ **So, barring that she has unknown power and strength, do you have any plan to get us out of this mess?**_ " Al asked tiredly. Neo gave him a look that read "are you fucking stupid?"

 _Hey dipshit, why do I have to think up everything?_

"Sorry, it's just that you and Roman don't really clue me in on the plan." Jaune snapped back. 4'9 and bitchy could choke on piano wire for all he cared, but there was no way he was going down that road.

Neo gave a silent sigh of annoyance, _look, I'd say at this point there is one person who may have an idea on what the hell is going on and who we can "trust" for the most part._

"Alrighty, who is it?"

 _Roman dumbass._

"Oh right, where is he again?" Jaune said sarcastically, but the look on Neo's face made him regret it almost instantly.

 _I know he's on the ship, but if we want to stay alive then we need to get to him._

" _ **Alright, how hard could it be? We only have to break onto an Atlesian Battleship, sneak our way to the prison cells, release Roman, and make it back without anyone knowing our faces.**_ " Al said smartly. Neo ground her teeth in frustration but said nothing; he had a point: what could they do to get Roman out?

Suddenly an idea popped into her head, she knows that the ships land every few days to refuel, restock, and re-man the vessels. It happened on three day intervals and if they could just get on then they could get Roman. But, that was also when security was the highest, and only soldiers or people with ID cards could get on, no matter how you sliced it.

 _The ships should be refueling tonight, but there's no way we can get onboard with an ID or becoming a soldier._

"So all I gotta do is play dress up and act? Neo, why didn't you just ask?" Jaune said with a sly smile.

0-0-0-0

 **Later that night...**

Pvt. Riyo was having a long day. You'd think with all the shit going on with the Vytal Festival that things would be kept interesting but no; everyday was the same thing guard, eat, sleep, wake, guard, guard, guard. He never even guarded anything important, just the damn loading docks for the ships and he didn't even need to be there! Damn thing had so much automated security that no one could hijack it.

Not only that, but things have been bad since Ironwood declared he would be coming along himself. That always sets everyone on edge, you do not dissapoint that man and if you do, well best of luck in finding a new job pal. But what was worse, was that he heard rumors that Winter Schnee was coming down here for the festival as back up or some shit.

If you wanted to set a company on edge that was what you whispered. Woman had no sense of humor and there has been more than one theory that the girl was actually just a statue made of ice and brought to life by some aura experiment.

Wild yes, but completely disregardable?

No.

Didn't help she had an 8-point figure too. Some men these days just can't stand the sight of beautiful woman, one look and they forget that they are trained soldiers of Atlas and go dogging after her.

Heh, the only thing that'll get you is a heel to the-

Al locked his arm around the guard's neck and pressed his head down with the other, cutting off his air supply. The man was out in about 4 seconds without a sound.

" _ **Nighty-Night soldier!**_ " Al quipped before dragging the man into the shadows.

He got lucky, the man was just slightly bigger than him, but that was nothing a belt couldn't fix. He dressed hastily and hid the guard's body underneath a small pile of discarded crates and other junk. Knowing his signature hold, the man would be out for a few hours if no one found him, and that was all the time he needed.

Al stalked over to the loading area where the Atleasian ship _The Sterling_ was being refueled. He started his way to the loading area of the ship and, when he got close, went to enter before he heard a voice from behind him.

"Soldier! Are you under orders to be here?" a uniformed man ask, Al could only assume he was an officer of some kind.'

"Yes sir! Higher ups said they wanted to assign additional guards to the prisoner's ship." Jaune responded immediately, if he hesistated he would seem incompetent and suspicious, but if he said too much then he would invoke additional questions.

"I wasn't informed of this transfer?" The officer asked incredulously.

"Sorry sir, but with security for the Vytal Festival and plans to move up the meetings things got backed up." Jaune didn't know what "meetings" he was talking about, but surely there had to be _some_ right?

The officer sighed, "damn it all, why can't the pencil-pushers keep everything on track. This is why we have a time table!"

Jaune just nodded along, no need to screw himself now all he had to do is wait until-

"All right, get moving."

"Yes sir!"

Jaune walked briskly with a soldier's cadence into the loading bay of the Sterling and entered without further interruption. He proceeded along the corridors, following the signs and avoiding anyone who seemed important or curious, and eventually he found himself at the holding cells. There were to guards patrolling the halls and an additional two guards who stood in front of a cell that he could only assume held Roman.

" _Alright Neo, just like we planned_ " Jaune whispered almost silently, what his uniformed friends didn't know was that Neo had been tailing him this whole time, she needed a second man to keep things smoothly or she would be doing too much at once. When he got close on of the patrolling guards turned to regard him boredly.

"Look, no one is transferring out right now. Go back to the loading dock and-" he was cut off as he felt a small tug pull across his armor and skin. That was his cue, Al delivered a roundhouse kick to the man's head with enough force to dent the helmet.

The other two guards reacted quickly but not quickly enough, Al rolled over to the second patrolling guard and, as he shifted upwards, lodged the concealed pen knife he had right into his neck. With a gurgle the guard crumpled and he turned his attention to the two other guards in front of Roman's cell. One had his gun raised and was right about to fire before an additional blade entered his throat. Neo did not give the other man time to be surprised and finished him post-haste.

Roman looked intrigued at his two underlings, "using Neo's semblance to cast an illusion covering the hall? Damn fine work kiddo, but that must be draining" he said, smirking at Neo who just huffed and looked away.

" _ **Enough dicking around Roman, we've come to get you out.**_ " Al said, but Roman just shook his head and gave a fake _tsk tsk_

"Sorry two-face, but I got orders from Cinder to stay here." Roman said with a shrug, "out of my hands I'm afraid."

" _ **So you know what she's planning?**_ " Al asked seriously he did not want this to be all for nothing.

You know what they say about tempting fate?

"Nope! She just told me before Mt. Glenn that this is where I'll be staying for a bit." Al swallowed his anger with more resolve than he thought he possessed.

"Ok, is there anything you _do_ know?" Jaune asked.

"Well, other than the Vytal Festival is going to be the main event and that she _is_ going to break me out of here for one reason or another pretty soon, then no."

Just like Roman to make you directly ask him for some fucking info.

Wait, the Vytal Festival? Is that what this is about? Of course! A gathering of hunters from across the world, two headmasters here at once, an entire Atlesian Fleet docked right outside? The whole thing could be a trap!

That didn't help him now though, he just killed 5 men and broke into Roman's cell. They'd beef up security and-

He felt another tug, but this time in the reverse direction and he paled. He looked over to Neo and found her slumped against the wall.

 _It's been 5 minutes already?!_

They had to go now. Guards would be watching the security feed and find out what was happening pretty quick. Jaune ran over to Neo and began to support her weight to try and get her up. She had straightened out before the alarms started, red and blinking they shrieked the universal sign of "intruder".

Forgoing supporting Neo, Al threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and hauled ass down the corridor. He reached into his side holster for his pistol and withdrew it from its pouch, if they felt like stopping him then good luck. It had been a total of ten minutes since docking and that mean they had another 10 to get out before the ship returned to the skies. Al grit his teeth as he picked up speed due to the sounds of heavy foot-falls closing in on his position, left, right, left, left, right, left, almost-

The first gunshot echoed through the corridor and he felt the piece of metal whiz by his ear. Jaune returned fire brazenly, not looking back although he heard the telltale _clang!_ of bullets meeting armor. Jaune could see the exit doors through his helmet's visor and picked up his speed, no point in slowing down now.

Jaune rocketed out the doors and was met with a chorus of cheers and applause from his adoring fans...

Hehe, nah, he was met with a symphony of gunshots. Luckily, most of the soldiers had been scrambling through the front entrance of the ship and didn't care to look towards the loading dock so they couldn't get a good shot on him.

" _ **Hey Neo, think you could catch a few of those bullets?**_ " Al asked sarcastically as was met with an elbow to the back of the head that made black spots dance in his vision. He shook his head to clear it up and kept sprinting out of the compound with a company of troops trying to kill him. He felt more than one bullet connect with his aura but the pain just gave him a reminder to keep running.

Jaune was reaching a dead end, he was stuck between the company following him and the docks that held the shipping freighters for dust and other essentials for the tournament. _Shit, I can't just double back and try to outrun these guys and they're probably calling in additional help too._

He needed a plan and fast, well maybe he could-

He never finished the thought as an explosion rocked his world only a few yards away. Luckily it hadn't been close enough or strong enough to kill but the shockwave sent him reeling into orbit. Neo fell out of his grasp and his head hit the ground. Hard.

The black spots threatened to encompass his entire vision but he stayed awake, it was now or never. He lifted himself of the ground as he heard the roar of a Bullhead above him and winced, _bringing the heavy ordinance huh?_ He went to grab Neo but found her mysteriously absent from whole courtyard.

 _Damnit Neo_

It was now or never, he returned to a full sprint right into the docks and neared the edge of the railing. What awaited below was the cruel, cold embrace of a briny sea, but he could have done worst right. He didn't have time to weigh his option as he felt another bullet fly right past his now unprotected head. Jaune gave a small prayer and jumped into the blackened abyss and hopefully away from the soldiers, bullets, and...

News Helicopter?

0-0-0-0

 **30 minutes later...**

"LAZ! YOU BETTER COME SEE THIS!" Lazuli heard her partner shout from the school's rec room. She raced downstairs to find multiple teams sitting, entranced by what was happening on the screen.

Lazuli pushed her way past the gathered people to look at the screen, on it there was a group of soldiers firing at another soldier who was running to the docks. Over his shoulder he carried someone they couldn't quite identify with the spotlight's glare.

 _"The suspect seems to be trying to escape with the person on his shoulder, no theories as of yet who this man is or what he was doing."_

Lazuli watched as she felt another dark feeling bubble in her stomach, the runner was knocked off his feet by an explosion and the person they were carrying slipped out of their grasp and...

Shattered like glass onto the ground.

"A semblance user?" someone from the crowd theorized, he was met with a murmur of agreement.

The runner's helmet had been blown off and he laid on all fours as he tried to get up again. He shook his head, stood up, and looked for the person he was carrying only to find them absent.

 _Poor guy_ she thought to herself.

The soldiers began firing again and the man took it as his cue to leave, they couldn't make out much because of the glare but he did appear to be male, with blonde and a muscular physique. The man reached the railing of the docks and seemed to consider jumping before another round of bullets was sent his way, the man whipped around to face his attackers and the camera finally got a good look at him.

Blonde hair like hers.

Pale skin like hers.

Blue eyes like hers.

Soft features like hers.

Yep, that was her brother.

Lazuli suddenly felt very cold, her legs wobbled as the teams only watched as he jumped into the ocean. Lazuli's mind had stopped and she looked around the room in a surreal stare-

Team CRDL looking intently at the screen

Team RWBY shifting their focus to a rapidly falling Lazuli

Team PNLR already coming to her aid

Jack and his silver and green haired teammates grimly looking at the whole situation.

Lazuli didn't remember much after that, only that the floor felt very hard.

0-0-0-0

 **Wooh another chapter guys! And a good one with some action and some dialogue. If you're wondering how Jaune pieced it all together, well he was working with Cinder and he's pretty sharp, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Neo's power is pretty strong so I put a handicap on how long she can use it for, but she still managed to be of help in more than one way.**

 **Read and review, see ya in two weeks (sorry).**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


	11. AN: On Hiatus

**Hello ladies and gentlemen! CoffeyJoe here with a sad announcement.**

 **Two-Faced Traitor is going to be put on hiatus for just a little while.**

 **I know that this sucks but I've run into a huge roadblock: I am out of ideas. Honestly, these last couple chapters have really been lacking in anything of substance because I can't find a place for the story to go. I feel awful that I had you guys read ten chapters of a story just for it to be put on hiatus. This is really my fault and I'm taking the blame.**

 **But I want to say I'm not abandoning this fic. It's just going to be awhile before I update it again, and again, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I hope you'll all understand why I'm doing, and I only ask that you don't bring this up on any other fanfics I write for here on. But, like I said, I AM returning to this story. Just let me figure out some better plot and dialogue and I swear it'll be better.**

 **Until then guys.**

 **XOXOXO**

 **CoffeyJoe**


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